Can OpenAI Become The Next SpaceX Trade? Coinbase Thinks So

Coinbase launched pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to OpenAI on Jun. 22, joining Binance and fueling speculation that the ChatGPT maker could follow SpaceX onto public markets.

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Coinbase Lists OpenAI Perpetuals

The exchange announced it would open OPENAI-PERP and ANTHROPIC-PERP markets at 11 a.m. UTC, extending a pre-IPO push that began weeks earlier with SpaceX. Binance had already listed a comparable OpenAI contract, and the rival rollout hands traders fresh ways to wager on the company's expected public value.

Each contract settles in USDC (USDC), never expires, and converts automatically once the underlying company lists.

The perps track an implied valuation rather than real stock, so holders gain no shares, dividends or voting rights. They also remain off-limits to U.S. traders.

OpenAI filed a confidential draft registration with regulators on Jun. 8, days after a jury threw out Elon Musk's breach-of-contract suit against the company he helped start in 2015. The filing set no date, and the firm has signaled it feels little urgency to trade publicly this year.

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SpaceX Debut Drives the Hype

Demand for pre-IPO perpetuals climbed to roughly $12 billion in June, a steep jump from about $2 million in March, with Binance handling more than 80 percent of the flow. SpaceX and OpenAI account for nearly all of that trading. The boom mirrors the run-up to the rocket maker's listing, when its contracts drew about $3.2 billion in volume in the weeks before it went public.

Binance has framed the contracts as a way to bring private-market pricing to everyday traders, rather than leaving it to institutions and insiders. Supporters cite early exposure to marquee names that retail buyers rarely reach before a listing. Skeptics flag thin liquidity, U.S. restrictions and violent price swings.

OpenAI's last private round valued the firm near $852 billion, with some forecasts stretching toward $1 trillion as its listing timeline slowly takes shape.

Those marks rest on private deals and reported estimates, not an audited prospectus.

SpaceX priced its offering at $135 a share on Jun. 12 and reached a market value near $2.1 trillion after one trading day, the largest debut on record. That first session set the benchmark that every pre-IPO wager now measures against.

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