Hypercall to Open Anthropic Options on Hyperliquid Nov. 9 Amid IPO Speculation

Hypercall to Launch Anthropic Options Amid IPO Uncertainty

Hypercall announced Friday it will open options contracts tied to Anthropic’s pre-initial public offering (IPO) price on Monday, November 9, as the artificial intelligence company gears up for its Nasdaq listing.

The new contracts will become available at 8 a.m. EST and will trade continuously, including on weekends. Traders will have the ability to purchase call and put options, or construct more complex spread strategies. These options are synthetic and will be settled in cash.

Hypercall, a product of Synapse, operates as an options exchange built on the Hyperliquid platform. The platform reported a notional volume of $536 million in options during September. Its existing markets already encompass assets such as SpaceX, the S&P 500 index, major U.S. stocks, Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH).

The move by Hypercall follows the availability of Anthropic’s pre-IPO perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, where traders have been speculating on the company’s valuation. These futures markets operate on HIP-3, a Hyperliquid feature that enables developers to launch their own perpetual futures contracts. As of Friday, Hyperliquid’s market data indicated four Anthropic perpetual futures contracts were active, originating from platforms including Trade[XYZ], Ventuals, Paragon, and EntropyIO.

According to Hypercall’s documentation, its options are European-style, meaning they will only pay out at their expiration date. Each contract will be settled in USDC, based on a 30-minute average of the oracle price for the underlying Hyperliquid perpetual future.

For stock and index-related perpetual futures, the underlying contract is typically found on Trade[XYZ]’s venue. However, its list of underlyings, last updated on November 3, does not yet feature an Anthropic perpetual future.

In a separate incident, Ventuals’ SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual future experienced a significant decline of approximately 45% in May, attributed to faulty oracle data from an external provider. This event led to the liquidation of over $1.5 million in long positions. Hypercall has stated that buyers of fully paid options are limited to losing their initial premium and will not face liquidation before the options expire.

Similarly, market makers selling these options can utilize the Anthropic perpetual futures for hedging purposes, as these contracts continue to trade even after U.S. exchanges have closed.

Anthropic publicly filed for its IPO on October 26, with plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT. Its amended prospectus, filed on November 2, still leaves the price range for the offering unspecified.

Bloomberg previously reported that Anthropic’s roadshow could commence the week of November 9, with a potential debut before Thanksgiving on November 26. However, on Friday, Reuters reported that potential investors are expressing doubts about the feasibility of the roadshow proceeding next week.

Four individuals familiar with the discussions informed Reuters that investors are advocating for a lower valuation, viewing the recently discussed $1.5 trillion valuation as the upper limit of their expectations.