- A string of new ETFs is using perpetual futures, or “perps,” to give investors exposure to sought-after private companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI without owning their shares, the Financial Times reported. Perps were cleared to trade in the US only in May and have mostly been used to speculate on cryptocurrencies.
- Two US ETFs launched this month by Leverage Shares and Corgi Funds invest in the so-called Mangos, Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, Alphabet, OpenAI and SpaceX, and hold total return swaps linked to perps to access Anthropic and OpenAI, which are still unlisted. Defiance ETFs has filed for a fund that would put 80% of its portfolio in “pre-IPO leaders.”
- The key risk is pricing. Perps have no expiry and reset at intervals through funding payments tied to the underlying asset’s price, but private companies have no observable price, so exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and Hyperliquid calculate their own reference prices from bids and offers.
- Better Markets’ Benjamin Schiffrin said the products “are essentially bets” and called on regulators to take a hard look. Supporters see a big opportunity, with NovaDius Wealth Management’s Nate Geraci calling perps “a fairly elegant solution” and saying he envisions their use in ETFs exploding.
What Happened?
Earlier attempts to put private stocks in ETFs relied on holding shares directly or through special-purpose vehicles, which required building an inventory of hard-to-get stock. Perps avoid that entirely, opening the door to an unlimited number of ETFs offering exposure to private companies, the FT said. In Europe, 21Shares has launched an Anthropic Synthetic ETP listed in Vienna and Stuttgart, and its chief executive Russell Barlow said the firm plans more single-asset, multi-asset and possibly short products. The perps typically switch to futures tracking a company’s share price once it lists.
Why It Matters?
These funds bring a crypto trading tool into the most liquid and widely held fund structure, aimed squarely at retail demand for pre-IPO AI names. The problem is that “the perpetual future itself is making up the reference price,” as Schiffrin put it, so investors may pay prices that drift from any real valuation. Morningstar’s Kenneth Lamont said there is clear demand from some small investors, but warned some may not understand the exposure and that small, illiquid perp markets could be manipulated.
What’s Next?
Anthropic’s planned IPO is the first big test of how these perp-linked funds behave when a private company starts trading publicly. Themes ETFs’ Paul Marino said the goal is to avoid a disconnect at listing, with the fund switching to owning actual shares once the companies go public. Investors should watch for regulatory scrutiny of the products and for how closely perp prices track the eventual IPO valuations.
Affected Tickers and Coins: META, NVDA, GOOGL, COIN, HYPE
Source: Financial Times
