Crypto traders value Anthropic IPO near $1.88 trillion

Before Anthropic has set a share count or price range for its initial public offering, offshore crypto traders have already put a number on it. Shortly after the Claude developer filed its prospectus, pre-IPO perpetual contracts tied to the company traded on venues including Binance and Hyperliquid at levels that imply a valuation of about $1.88 trillion, Forbes reported. That figure assumes one billion shares. It sits just under the $2 trillion upper estimate that bankers have discussed and above the $1.77 trillion record SpaceX set at its June IPO.forbes.com

Anthropic filed its Form S-1 on October 26. It plans to list Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "ANT." Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley lead the underwriting, and the company is targeting a debut in the week of November 16, Capital Brief reported. The filing shows first-half 2026 revenue of $16.3 billion and a net loss of $80.7 billion. Most of that loss came from a noncash charge on convertible debt, and the operating loss was $693 million, according to CCN.ccn.com+2

How the contracts work

Binance's ANTHROPICUSDT perpetual launched on June 2 and offers leverage of up to 20 times. Liquid's ANTH market quotes one price point for each $1 billion of implied company value, CCN noted. Neither product delivers shares or an IPO allocation. Open interest in Anthropic contracts across more than a dozen exchanges is about $134 million, according to DeFiLlama data cited by Forbes.forbes.com+1

Supporters point to the SpaceX listing as a test case. Bankers priced SpaceX at $135 a share. Perpetual futures traded near $173 the day before the debut, and the stock closed its first session at $160.95, Forbes reported. Anthropic's filing also warns that any unapproved transfer of "any interest in Anthropic stock" is void, though it does not mention perpetual futures, Bitcoin.com News noted.news.bitcoin.com+1

Bitcoin stuck on the sidelines

Bitcoin stayed close to $80,000 the day after the filing. Bitcoin.com News described the prevailing worry as the IPO pulling in capital that might otherwise go to the cryptocurrency, which is down more than 5% over the past month. AI stocks pushed the Nasdaq higher for a second session. Meanwhile, Meta's $95 billion capital raise and Anthropic's possible $100 billion offering add up to "nearly $200 billion that will be bet on AI, and not crypto," CoinDesk wrote.coindesk.com+1

Other forces are also at work. Strategy bought no bitcoin last week, and crypto equities fell more sharply than the tokens on Monday, Saxo said. Traders are also waiting for the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday, October 28.home.saxo

Nik Bhatia, founder of The Bitcoin Layer, sees the rush of mega-raises as companies chasing the last available liquidity. "These are some red flags that I believe valuations are starting to come down; earnings growth is also starting to top out," he said, according to Bitcoin.com News.news.bitcoin.com