Kraken Opens Tokenized Anthropic IPO Requests as Bitcoin Slides Below $68,000

The product, called ANTx, is part of Kraken's xStocks range of tokenized securities. According to the exchange's offer page, customers can submit requests until 17:00 UTC on November 18, with listing expected on November 19, subject to market conditions. The page gives an indicative range of $70 to $78 per share for 825 million Class A shares, which it says implies a valuation of $1.4 trillion at the midpoint. At the top of the range the offering would raise about $64.4 billion, the most Anthropic is seeking.

The offer is one of the clearest tests yet of whether crypto platforms can route retail money from outside the United States into a large US listing, and of what that access costs. On the expected range, the 5% spread puts the price of one ANTx at roughly $73.50 to $81.90, and Kraken says other fees may apply.

What Buyers Get

Kraken says xStocks give price exposure only and are not equity, so holders have no voting or shareholder rights. The tokens are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited. The exchange says there is no lock-up and that the tokens can be traded around the clock once listed, and it describes the offer as an IPO subscription rather than a pre-IPO product, since nothing is bought before the offering prices.

Allocation is not first come, first served. Anthropic and its underwriters set the final price and decide which requests are filled, so a request may be met in full, in part or not at all, with unfilled amounts returned to the customer's Kraken account. The product is not available to US persons, and Kraken's disclaimer also excludes the UK, Canada and Australia. Some reports list Japan and New Zealand among the excluded markets as well. Banks running Anthropic's offering have already turned away orders from China and Hong Kong.

The Pull on Crypto

Bitcoin traded at $67,034.6 at 04:54 GMT on Saturday, down 1.61% on the day and at its lowest level since August, according to Investing.com. It has fallen more than 20% since early October, and CoinDesk said it was heading for a sixth straight weekly loss, leaving it down 21% this year.

Xapo Bank chief executive Seamus Rocca linked part of the decline to capital moving toward Anthropic, whose offering is reported to be about six times oversubscribed, and compared it with the liquidity squeeze around SpaceX's IPO in June. Strive chief executive Matt Cole noted that bitcoin fell 19% before the SpaceX listing, compared with about 18% ahead of Anthropic's, and recovered once SpaceX began trading. Whether that repeats is uncertain.

Other pressures are also at work. Investing.com cited concern that Strategy could be removed from MSCI indexes, which would force selling by index-tracking funds, along with elevated short positions and withdrawals from BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust. Precious metals also fell, pointing to broader deleveraging rather than selling confined to crypto. Analysts cautioned against tying bitcoin's losses directly to the leadership upheaval at Nvidia.

Anthropic is expected to price its offering on Wednesday, and its shares are due to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT on Thursday.