AI’s hottest private companies have booming crypto shadow market

The artificial intelligence boom has attracted retail investors through various financial instruments such as closed-end funds, interval funds, and special-purpose vehicles (SPVs).
Crypto platforms are now offering trading opportunities tied to the most valuable private AI companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX.
This development marks a new financialization frontier in private markets, leveraging crypto infrastructure to provide real-time trading of these otherwise inaccessible private assets.
Crypto trading venues such as Ventuals and PreStocks have experienced a substantial increase in trading activity, with open interest and market value climbing more than threefold since the beginning of the year.
Major crypto exchanges are beginning to list pre-IPO assets, expanding the availability of these instruments to a broad user base.
Platforms like Trade.xyz on the Hyperliquid blockchain are also participating in offering crypto derivatives trading tied to private AI companies.