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ThinkMarkets began quoting 24/7 contracts on 28 October 2026 that let clients take long or short positions on the expected market capitalisation of Anthropic and OpenAI at the close of each company's first trading day. The instruments are cash-settled CFDs: they provide neither shares nor an IPO allocation. ThinkMarkets co-founder and chief executive Nauman Anees said the service was designed to keep trading available outside exchange hours, when listing news can still emerge.
Each point in a ThinkMarkets quote represents $1 billion of company value, so a reading of 1,500 indicates a $1.5 trillion valuation. Clients may close positions whenever the market is quoted. Any trade still open at listing is settled against the actual closing value on day one, rather than converted into stock.
How the contracts are priced
Anthropic filed for an IPO on Monday and sought a listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ANT. Its registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission leaves the proposed price range empty. During the first half, live-account trading at nine of the 10 broker AI agents relied on Anthropic's Claude model.
Crypto pricing has already offered a reference point, although the books remain small. Binance perpetuals implied an Anthropic value of about $1.87 trillion on 25 and 26 October, compared with the $965 billion post-money valuation from its May funding round. Forbes reported on Tuesday that open Anthropic contracts across more than a dozen venues totalled $134 million, citing DeFiLlama.
Pepperstone introduced another format this week. Its perpetual CFD tracks the expected opening share price, around $115 on Wednesday, using prices from centralised and decentralised exchanges.
Pepperstone says clients may move positions into a contract on listed shares after the debut. That differs from ThinkMarkets' contract, which references the company's market value at the close of the first session.
Who can trade and when
The new ThinkMarkets markets are available to its clients now, though the company has not specified eligibility by jurisdiction. OpenAI has said it will not go public this year.
Its last reported valuation was $852 billion in a funding round that closed on 31 March. The company has also said tokens Robinhood sold in Europe did not represent OpenAI equity.
Other venues established exposure earlier. Bitget opened an Anthropic perpetual in early June with use of up to 20 times.
OKX announced perpetuals on OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic on 6 May, then made them available to European clients. The European Securities and Markets Authority treats perpetual futures as CFDs there, subject to retail use caps. Ventuals' OpenAI and Anthropic markets on Hyperliquid ended on 15 June after more than $650 million in volume, CoinDesk reported. STARTRADER launched CFDs on both names on 29 June with 5x use; PU Prime also listed them around that time.
At least six venues had quoted Anthropic before ThinkMarkets, a count by Finance Magnates. The earlier field also included CMC Markets, which opened a SpaceX grey market on the day Binance listed its pre-IPO perpetual in May. ThinkMarkets' 24/7 range already covers gold, silver, oil and US index CFDs.
FM Intelligence data show at least 19 firms launched 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 in the first half of 2026, up 12% year on year.
What this means on the desk
For operations and risk teams, the key distinction is the settlement reference: ThinkMarkets' contract uses a closing company value, while Pepperstone's follows an anticipated opening share price and may roll into a listed-share contract. Those are different exposures and require separate checks in product descriptions, position monitoring and settlement procedures.
Before enabling either market, desks should establish which client jurisdictions are eligible, how quotes and trading hours are handled, and what happens if a listing is delayed or the reference price is unavailable. The source does not specify those operational rules, nor the margin terms for ThinkMarkets' contracts. Risk and support teams should confirm them with the provider before updating client-facing documentation or workflows. They should also clarify how the two settlement references are represented in client statements and reconciliation processes, and how open positions are handled at the transition from pre-listing markets to listed shares.
