Polymarket has launched perpetual futures trading tied to Anthropic, giving investors a new way to speculate on the valuation of the privately held artificial intelligence company without purchasing its shares.
The ANTHROPIC-USD contract began trading on October 29, 2026, at 16:00 UTC, offering round-the-clock access and leverage of up to 10 times the value of a trader’s collateral.
The product operates through Polymarket Perps, the company’s derivatives platform, which launched in September with perpetual contracts covering cryptocurrencies, equities, commodities and stock indices.
Unlike conventional futures, perpetual contracts have no fixed expiration date. Traders can maintain positions as long as they satisfy margin requirements, with periodic funding payments helping keep contract prices aligned with their reference markets. The Anthropic contract settles in pUSD, Polymarket’s trading stablecoin, and uses Hyperliquid’s io market as its reference price.
The launch expands access to synthetic exposure to private technology companies, an emerging market attracting interest from cryptocurrency traders seeking opportunities beyond publicly listed equities.
Anthropic Contract Offers Pre-IPO Exposure Without Share Ownership
The new contract allows traders to take long positions when they expect Anthropic‘s implied valuation to rise or short positions when they anticipate a decline. With leverage capped at 10x, traders can control positions substantially larger than their initial collateral. However, leverage also amplifies losses and increases liquidation risk.
The contract does not represent actual Anthropic equity, provide shareholder voting rights or confer ownership in the company. Instead, its value reflects a market-derived reference price associated with Anthropic’s anticipated private-market valuation.
That distinction is particularly important because privately held companies lack the continuous, transparent share-price discovery available in public stock markets. Reference prices may therefore depend on relatively limited trading activity, introducing risks of volatility, price discrepancies and market manipulation.
Polymarket has indicated that the contract is intended to transition into a standard perpetual futures product after Anthropic completes an initial public offering. However, that transition remains contingent on a future listing, and Anthropic has not announced a confirmed IPO date in connection with the product.
The platform also offers a separate prediction market concerning Anthropic’s potential stock ticker, which should not be confused with the new valuation-linked futures contract.
Polymarket Expands Derivatives Business Amid Regulatory Scrutiny
The Anthropic listing represents another step in Polymarket’s expansion beyond event-based prediction markets. Polymarket Perps launched on September 3, initially offering leveraged exposure to stocks, cryptocurrencies, commodities and major market indices.
The platform supports continuous trading, including weekends and periods when traditional stock exchanges are closed. Its perpetual futures infrastructure uses periodic funding payments, margin requirements and liquidation mechanisms to manage leveraged positions.
The Anthropic product also illustrates the growing relationship between decentralized derivatives markets and conventional financial assets. Other trading platforms have introduced synthetic contracts referencing private companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, reflecting demand for exposure to technology businesses before public listings.
However, such contracts can trade at prices that differ materially from valuations established in private funding rounds or eventual IPO transactions. The expansion comes as Polymarket faces renewed regulatory scrutiny in the United States.
Reuters reported on October 27 that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was examining whether the company’s international prediction market had complied with restrictions imposed under its 2022 settlement.
Polymarket operates its international derivatives business separately from Polymarket US, which is registered as a CFTC-regulated designated contract market. The international platform is not regulated by the CFTC, and access is restricted for US persons and certain other jurisdictions.
For traders, the Anthropic listing provides continuous, leveraged exposure to a prominent private AI company, but without the ownership rights or pricing transparency associated with publicly traded shares.
For the broader derivatives industry, the launch highlights increasing demand for speculative markets linked to private-company valuations.
