Kraken Launches Cash-Settled Pre-IPO Perpetuals for OpenAI and Anthropic

Overview

• Kraken made the OpenAI (PF_OPENAIXUSD) and Anthropic (PF_ANTHROPICXUSD) perpetual contracts available to eligible users when it re-activated the products on Sept. 6, offering long and short positions with no expiry.
• Each contract uses Kraken’s PreMarket Synthetic index derived from perp-market activity, applies exponential smoothing, and clamps the mark price within a 0.25% band to limit sudden moves in thin markets.
• Base maximum leverage is 5x with an initial margin of 20% and a 10% maintenance margin, funding settles hourly, leverage steps down for larger positions, and Kraken warns of liquidation, auto-deleveraging, and losses that can exceed initial deposits.
• The products are offered by Payward Digital Solutions from Bermuda under a BMA license and are blocked for customers in the U.S., EEA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with UK access limited to professional clients.
• Kraken says it will switch pricing to an xStocks tokenized-equity index if either company lists, may delist and settle if reliable pricing is unavailable, and the wider rollout of pre-IPO perps raises questions about valuation reliability and regulatory oversight that could affect traders and market stability.