Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan Says Perpetual Futures Markets Can Democratize Access to Pre-IPO Companies. Here's Why He's Right.

Anthropic's value rose more meteorically while private

At the Token2049 crypto conference in Singapore this October, Jeff Yan, CEO of Hyperliquid, said that most of the upside from shares of private companies moving toward their initial public offerings goes to “a select few people with privilege” in advance of when the public can buy in.

His crypto exchange is one potential remedy for that. It offers, through outside developers, perpetual futures contracts that grant investors exposure to those businesses before they've gone public. For example, on Hyperliquid's platform, a contract tracking Anthropic implied a $2 trillion valuation as of Oct. 15.

Yan is right that perpetual futures can give regular investors exposure to companies that haven't gone public yet. Here's why.

First, let's build some clarity regarding the financial instruments Yan is talking about here.

A pre-IPO perpetual future, or perp for short, is a derivative contract that tracks a private company's expected market capitalization before its IPO. These contracts never expire.

Holders of these contracts automatically pay periodic funding payments to each other to keep the contracts' price near a reference value set by the market or a data feed. But perpetuals only offer what's called synthetic exposure. They enable investors to experience returns from the underlying asset's price movements without ever granting them control of any actual shares. This also means contract holders have no rights to any portion of the business' earnings or any voting powers.

The appeal of using pre-IPO perpetuals is easier to understand with an example that shows how much regular investors are essentially forced to miss out on. Anthropic's valuation grew from $586.56 million in May 2021 to $965 billion in May 2026, thanks to its successful Claude series of large language models and increasing societal focus on AI and its developers.

Nearly all of those gains in its valuation went to funds and institutional investors that can legally invest in private companies. This speaks directly to the point that Yan was making, especially considering that mainstream investors being prohibited from participation is the norm.

However, there's a big risk here. As of Oct. 15, the perp contract on Hyperliquid values Anthropic at just over double the most recent funding round. Buyers at that level lose money unless Anthropic's market value stays above about $2 trillion when they sell.

Similarly, Space Exploration Technologies priced its June 2026 IPO at $135 per share, yet its perp contract on Hyperliquid sold for $180 to $200 after its May 18 launch, then slid to $160 to $170 by June 8.

Should you buy pre-IPO perps?

A futures contract isn't the same as equity, so holders have no claim on the company. This makes it a poor idea to invest in pre-IPO futures.

Another reason not to buy pre-IPO perpetuals is that it's hard to know what you're even getting exposure to. Anthropic filed its IPO paperwork confidentially on June 1, so none of its audited financials are public. The IPO itself could launch in mid-November.

Would you want to buy a derivative contract for a company whose financials you can't vet? I wouldn't.

Skip the perps and read Anthropic's public filings when they're available. If the numbers justify the price, buy actual shares if it fits your portfolio.