Europe just got a seat at a table it had long been shut out of. OKX has opened pre-IPO markets in Europe, letting traders on the continent take positions on OpenAI and Anthropic before either company ever rings a stock exchange bell. The move lands at a moment when both artificial intelligence labs are commanding some of the largest private valuations in corporate history, and when rival platforms have largely kept European customers on the sidelines of that action.
Key takeaways
- OKX has launched pre-IPO markets for European traders through Pre-IPO X-Perps on OpenAI and Anthropic.
- Anthropic raised $65 billion in May at a $965 billion valuation; OpenAI raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation.
- Pre-IPO X-Perps allow long or short positions with up to 10x leverage and instant entry or exit.
- Tokenized Stocks debuted on OKX with 100 markets on day one, including SpaceX, Google, NVIDIA, Palantir, and the SPY and QQQ ETFs, trading 24/7.
- X-Perps trading volume in Europe has quadrupled since early July, according to OKX.
OKX Introduces Regulated Pre-IPO Markets for European Traders
OKX says European users can now trade regulated exposure to two of the world’s most closely watched private companies, closing a gap that has persisted even as demand for pre-IPO exposure has grown sharply elsewhere. Until now, positions on OpenAI and Anthropic have mostly circulated offshore or on decentralized finance platforms, leaving European traders watching from outside a market everyone else seemed to have access to.
Trading OpenAI and Anthropic Pre-IPO X-Perps
The new Pre-IPO X-Perps let traders go long or short on the implied valuation of a private company, with leverage of up to 10x and the flexibility to enter or exit whenever they choose. OKX describes both markets as live with liquidity deep enough to support sizable trades, and the exchange says it intends to keep adding pre-IPO markets as new private companies become relevant to traders.
The launch also arrives against a backdrop of intensifying competition for pre-IPO exposure to the same two AI labs. Kraken, for instance, rolled out its own cash-settled OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual futures in June, offering up to 5x leverage through a synthetic pricing index, according to crypto.news. Notably, Kraken excludes customers in the United States, the European Economic Area, Canada, Australia and New Zealand from those products entirely — a restriction that underscores just how limited regulated access to these markets has been for Europeans until OKX’s launch.
Significance of Anthropic and OpenAI Funding and Valuations
The numbers behind both companies help explain why appetite for pre-IPO exposure has been building. Anthropic raised $65 billion in May at a $965 billion valuation, while OpenAI closed a $122 billion round at an $852 billion valuation. Those figures rank among the largest private fundraising rounds ever recorded, and they’ve turned both labs into the two most talked-about names in artificial intelligence — companies that, for most Europeans, have so far been something to read headlines about rather than something to actually trade.
This matters for a simple reason: when private valuations move into the hundreds of billions of dollars before a company even lists publicly, the gap between institutional access and retail access widens. Regulated pre-IPO markets Europe-based traders can actually use help narrow that gap, rather than pushing demand toward platforms that operate outside any European oversight.
Launch of Tokenized Stocks Enables 24/7 Trading in Europe
Alongside the pre-IPO push, OKX has also launched Tokenized Stocks for European users, opening with 100 markets on day one and adding more every week. The tokens track the underlying share price and trade around the clock, a structural shift from how equities have traditionally been accessible in Europe.
Initial Markets Including SpaceX, Google, NVIDIA, Palantir, and ETFs
The initial lineup covers SpaceX, Google, NVIDIA and Palantir, along with the SPY and QQQ exchange-traded funds. Traders can simply buy, sell and convert these tokens for straightforward exposure, or work them through a live market using limit, market, stop, TWAP and Iceberg order types — the same toolkit typically reserved for more advanced equity trading.
Benefits of 24/7 Trading Across Time Zones
U.S. exchanges open at 15:30 CET and close at 22:00, meaning a European trader’s entire working morning runs while those markets sit shut, and anything breaking after the New York close doesn’t land until late in the European evening. Because tokenized stocks 24/7 trading removes that lag entirely, European users can react to Tuesday’s news on Tuesday, rather than waiting for U.S. markets to reopen the next day.
This is one of the clearer practical shifts here: European traders no longer have to sit on information overnight simply because a stock exchange thousands of miles away happens to be closed.
Seamless Portfolio Integration and On-Chain Custody Features
Perhaps the more structural change is that crypto and equities no longer sit in separate accounts. On OKX, a Bitcoin position and a NVIDIA position — or a stake in OpenAI before it ever goes public — now sit on the same balance, inside the same app.
Collateralizing X-Perps with Stock Positions and Automated Trading Bots
A stock position on OKX can collateralize an X-Perps trade, and it can also be plugged into automated strategies: a DCA bot to average in over time, or a Grid bot to work a price range automatically. Stocks, pre-IPO positions and crypto share the same order types, the same bots and the same margin, all within a single account alongside spot trading, Earn products and Pay features.
On-Chain Withdrawals to Self-Custody Wallets
Supported tokens can also be withdrawn on-chain, including to a self-custody wallet — a deliberate design choice, according to OKX, aimed at giving traders the option to hold assets themselves rather than being locked into the platform. This kind of regulated pre-IPO trading combined with on-chain withdrawal rights is a fairly unusual pairing, since many platforms offering synthetic pre-IPO exposure keep positions cash-settled with no underlying token to move at all.
OKX frames the broader push as a response to a pattern that’s played out repeatedly this year: pre-IPO markets opening in various places while European customers get left out, a dynamic that tends to push demand toward unregulated venues instead. The exchange points to trading activity as evidence that the appetite was already there waiting to be served — X-Perps volume in Europe has grown fourfold since the start of July, even before the OpenAI and Anthropic markets went live.
FAQ
What companies are available in the pre-IPO markets on OKX for European traders?
Pre-IPO X-Perps on OpenAI and Anthropic are available for European traders on OKX.
What leverage is offered on pre-IPO X-Perps trading?
Pre-IPO X-Perps offer up to 10x leverage for long or short trading positions.
Can tokenized stocks be traded outside of US market hours on OKX?
Yes, tokenized stocks on OKX trade 24/7, allowing traders to react to news outside US market hours.
Is it possible to withdraw tokenized stocks from OKX to self-custody wallets?
Supported tokenized stocks can be withdrawn on-chain, including to self-custody wallets.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
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