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ThinkMarkets began quoting 24/7 contracts tied to Anthropic's and OpenAI's expected value at the close of their first listed trading session on 28 October 2026. Clients can take either side, but the cash-settled CFDs confer neither stock ownership nor an IPO allocation. Each point represents $1 billion in market capitalisation, so a 1,500 quote indicates a $1.5 trillion valuation.
The product arrives as Anthropic prepares to list. The company filed for an IPO on Monday and applied to join the Nasdaq Global Select Market as ANT, but its registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gives no price range. Of the 10 broker AI agents active on live accounts in the first half, nine used Anthropic's Claude model.
OpenAI, last valued at $852 billion in a round closed on 31 March, has said it will not go public this year. It has also said Robinhood tokens sold in Europe do not represent OpenAI equity.
Two contracts use different reference prices
ThinkMarkets' measure is the expected total value of each company at the end of its first trading day, rather than a share price. Positions can be closed whenever the market is quoted. Any position still open at the listing is settled against the actual closing value for that first session, with no conversion into shares.
Co-founder and chief executive Nauman Anees said the round-the-clock schedule addressed the fact that listing news can arrive while exchanges are shut. That gives the broker's clients access outside conventional market hours, while leaving the contract's outcome linked to a future closing valuation.
Pepperstone took a different approach when it launched its Anthropic market this week. Its perpetual CFD references the price traders expect the shares to open at, around $115 on Wednesday, using prices from centralised and decentralised exchanges. Pepperstone said positions can roll into a contract on the listed shares after the debut. Head of research Chris Weston described the market as a live indicator of investor sentiment as the listing approaches.
Crypto venues established earlier prices
Crypto platforms and smaller CFD brokers had already offered similar exposure months earlier. Bitget introduced an Anthropic perpetual in early June with use of up to 20 times. On 6 May, OKX announced perpetual futures linked to OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic, and later made them available to European clients. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) treats perpetual futures as CFDs there, subject to retail use caps.
Ventuals operated OpenAI and Anthropic markets on Hyperliquid until 15 June, when it shut them after more than $650 million in volume, CoinDesk reported. STARTRADER started offering CFDs on both companies on 29 June with 5x use, while PU Prime listed the same names around that time. Earlier, CMC Markets opened a SpaceX grey market on the day Binance listed a pre-IPO perpetual in May. Finance Magnates counted at least six venues offering Anthropic exposure before ThinkMarkets entered.
Perpetual futures on Binance implied an Anthropic value of about $1.87 trillion on 25 and 26 October, nearly twice the $965 billion post-money valuation from its May funding round. Yet open Anthropic contracts across more than a dozen crypto venues were valued at $134 million, Forbes reported on Tuesday, citing DeFiLlama.
The integration question
The markets join ThinkMarkets' 24/7 gold, silver, oil and US index CFDs. Gold has drawn multiple weekend launches: FM Intelligence data show at least 19 firms introduced dedicated weekend or 24/7 gold products between 17 February and 1 October. ThinkMarkets represented about 0.4% of retail FX and CFD volume tracked in FM Intelligence's Broker Volumes during the first half of 2026, a 12% rise year on year.
For operations teams, the distinction between a market-cap valuation and an expected opening share price has direct implications for product setup and settlement monitoring. Before enabling either contract, operators should check how the reference price is sourced, how the first-day settlement value is confirmed, and what happens to Pepperstone positions that roll into a listed-share contract. The source does not specify the operational mechanics behind those controls or how the new markets connect to brokers' existing reporting and reconciliation processes.
