Onchain traders pushed the implied valuation of artificial intelligence firm Anthropic past $1 trillion on April 27, using synthetic pre-IPO tokens on the Solana-based decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter. The milestone makes Anthropic the third private company to see its speculative valuation cross that threshold in on-chain markets, following SpaceX and OpenAI.
The valuation is derived from pre-IPO instruments, primarily the ANTHRO token traded on platforms like PreStocks and Toobit DEX+, which are accessible through Jupiter. "By hosting these assets on DEX+, Toobit removes the institutional barriers and multi-year holding periods that have historically restricted access to private equity," Toobit said in a press release on April 22. These platforms use a process known as Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, where shares of a private company are held by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that then issues corresponding tokens on a blockchain.
This structure allows traders to gain economic exposure to a company's valuation before it goes public, often with minimum investments as low as $10, a fraction of the typical six-figure minimums in traditional private equity. However, these tokens do not grant holders any ownership, voting rights, or dividends. The price is determined by supply and demand on the DEX, reflecting market sentiment rather than the company's verified financials, which are only updated during official funding rounds.
The surge in pre-IPO token trading highlights a significant trend, but it also carries substantial risks, including counterparty risk from the SPV, thin liquidity, and regulatory uncertainty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement in January 2026 clarifying that tokenized securities remain subject to existing laws, prompting most platforms to block U.S. investors by operating under Regulation S. This speculative rally could attract further regulatory scrutiny, even as it demonstrates a powerful new mechanism for price discovery in private markets.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
