Ventuals, a platform that had carved out a niche by offering perpetual futures tied to the valuations of private technology companies, has announced the closure of its services. The company’s model was built on a simple but ambitious idea: giving traders 24/7 access to synthetic exposure in firms like OpenAI and Anthropic before they ever reached the public markets.
On June 15, Ventuals confirmed that all trading tied to unlisted company valuations on Hyperliquid would be discontinued. This included its headline products—perpetual futures contracts linked to OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the most anticipated artificial intelligence IPO prospects. With both companies still privately held, users were effectively speculating estimated valuations rather than owning equity.
Reports had pegged OpenAI’s implied market value at around $1.3 trillion, while Anthropic’s contracts were settling near $1.62 trillion. These figures, published in outlets like Yahoo Finance and CoinPost, underscored the appetite for synthetic exposure to AI firms that dominate headlines but remain inaccessible to retail investors.
The closure of Ventuals’ private‑market futures has fueled speculation about the trajectory of crypto‑native trading platforms. Many observers see the move as part of a broader shift, where decentralized finance experiments are colliding with markets traditionally reserved for Wall Street.
Data from DeFiLlama illustrates the scale of activity on Hyperliquid, which processed roughly $234 billion in perpetual futures volume in the prior month alone. Ventuals had tapped into this liquidity by building markets under the HIP‑3 framework, a permissionless system that allowed synthetic trading across assets ranging from commodities to equities and private company valuations.
Yet HIP‑3 markets are now slated for termination. Within that ecosystem, TradeXYZ dominated activity, accounting for nearly 90 percent of HIP‑3 trading volume and more than 97 percent of open interest. CoinPost noted that TradeXYZ’s reach extended across crude oil, precious metals, the S&P 500, and major tech names like Nvidia, with cumulative volume surpassing $286 billion.
Ventuals, by contrast, remained a smaller player. Over its lifespan, the platform facilitated about $650 million in total trading volume and generated more than 500,000 HYPE tokens from activity. At peak demand, its AI‑linked futures drew $1.5 million in daily volume—significant, but still less than one percent of HIP‑3’s overall market.
The company’s pitch was clear: a round‑the‑clock private market where users could gain exposure to high‑growth firms before IPOs. That concept resonated with traders eager to front‑run the public debut of AI giants. But the termination of services highlights the volatility of this niche. Demand existed, yet competition was fierce; liquidity fragmented, and regulatory uncertainty loomed large.
Ventuals’ exit underscores the experimental nature of perpetual futures tied to private valuations. While the idea of tokenized exposure to pre‑IPO companies remains compelling, the market is still in flux, rapidly evolving, highly competitive, and unforgiving operators unable to scale. The automatic settlement of positions marks the end of one experiment, but also a reminder that crypto‑native platforms are increasingly testing the boundaries of traditional finance.
