Anthropic warned investors that unauthorized sales of its stock are void, pushing back against a surge of funds, SPVs, tokenized securities, and pre IPO products claiming to offer exposure to one of the world’s most sought after private AI companies.
The Claude maker said any sale or transfer of its preferred or common stock, or any interest tied to that stock, must be approved by its board. Without that approval, the transaction is invalid, the buyer will not be recognized as a stockholder, and no stockholder rights will be granted, according to Anthropic’s support page.
The warning directly targets a fast-growing market for synthetic exposure to private AI companies. Anthropic said it does not allow SPVs to acquire its shares and warned that products using direct sales, forward contracts, tokenized securities, or similar structures may either be fraudulent or have no value because they attempt to bypass the company’s transfer restrictions.
That message lands as crypto native markets are increasingly turning private company access into a tradable product. PreStocks has offered tokenized exposure to pre IPO companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, Kalshi, and Polymarket, giving traders a way to speculate on private market valuations before any public listing.
PreStocks describes its Anthropic tokenized stock as a synthetic asset that provides price exposure to Anthropic before a potential IPO, not official stock or a direct equity claim. The company says the token tracks implied market valuation and does not provide voting rights, dividends, or legal ownership in Anthropic.
The pricing has become detached from traditional private market rounds. PreStocks’ market is pricing Anthropic’s valuation at around $1.25 trillion, while Hyperliquid’s pre-IPO market priced Anthropic at $1,100, implying a $1.1 trillion valuation.
The timing is sensitive as investor demand for Anthropic grows ahead of a potential public listing. Reuters reported in December that the company hired Wilson Sonsini to prepare for a possible IPO as early as 2026, though Anthropic said it has not decided whether or when to go public. It was also reportedly negotiating a funding round that could value it above $300 billion, after a recent $183 billion valuation.
Anthropic also named several firms it said are not authorized to buy or sell its shares, including Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama, Lionheart Ventures, Hiive for new offerings, Forge for new offerings, Sydecar, and Upmarket. Any sale or transfer offered by those firms will not be recognized on Anthropic’s books, the company said.