The Battle for Anthropic's IPO Ticket: From Selling Homes in the Bay Area for Shares to Bitget Opening a 100 Yuan Allocation

Author: Zen, PANews

In April this year, an unusual real estate transaction occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An investment banker named Storm Duncan planned to sell his mansion valued at approximately $8 million. However, unlike typical homeowners, he wanted buyers to offer not cash, but shares of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. To facilitate the deal, he was even willing to allow buyers to retain 20% of the appreciation of the exchanged shares during the lock-up period.

When asked why he chose this unconventional selling method, Duncan's explanation was simple: there are too many houses and too few AI assets. Conversely, some early employees of Anthropic might find themselves in the opposite situation, holding valuable company equity but lacking sufficient cash to purchase real estate. Storm Duncan's mansion for sale

A few weeks later, Wired magazine discovered that more similar properties were listed in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Among them, a tech PR company owner offered a special deal when selling a $2.5 million home: if the buyer paid with Anthropic shares, they only needed to provide $2 million worth of equity, effectively giving a 20% discount.

Whether these transactions will ultimately be completed remains uncertain, but they already illustrate one point: Anthropic's equity is becoming one of the most sought-after and hardest-to-obtain assets in Silicon Valley.

And this chase for Anthropic's equity has finally reached an opportunity for the public market. On October 26, Anthropic officially submitted its IPO prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), planning to list on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ANT, with market expectations valuing the IPO at $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion.

From wealthy individuals in Silicon Valley willing to exchange mansions for shares to Wall Street institutions ready to invest billions, Anthropic's IPO has become one of the most anticipated events in the global capital markets. The consensus is that equity is in short supply, and what the market truly cares about is how to secure an allocation in the tight offering and how to price this rapidly growing AI company.

Five Years to Join the Trillion-Dollar Club: The Valuation Logic of Anthropic

In 2021, Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei led a group of former OpenAI employees to establish Anthropic. At that time, ChatGPT had not yet been released, and the commercial market for generative AI was far from the massive scale it is today.

Five years later, the company has positioned itself at the center of the global AI industry. According to the latest prospectus, the revenue for the third quarter of 2026 is equivalent to 3.7 times that of the entire year of 2025. Furthermore, according to Reuters, Anthropic's revenue forecast for 2028 is projected to reach $190 billion to $200 billion. The astonishing speed of commercialization and growth prospects have made Anthropic one of the most closely watched IPO projects on Wall Street. Its expected IPO valuation once reached about $2 trillion, although some investors have recently lowered their expectations, the market discussion still places the valuation at $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion.

Such a massive valuation is supported not only by rapidly growing revenue and demand from corporate clients but also by the capital market's high expectations for Anthropic's future growth potential.

As the IPO approaches, investors face another more practical question: even if they are optimistic about Anthropic, how many opportunities will there be to acquire shares at the offering price?

After all, for an IPO project like Anthropic that attracts global investor attention, the allocation of shares at the offering price will be particularly scarce.

From SpaceX to Anthropic: How Are Tickets for Hot IPOs Allocated?

In June this year, when SpaceX went public, the market showcased the immense allure of a top-tier tech company IPO.

On June 11, SpaceX officially set its offering price at $135 per share. The next day, it debuted on NASDAQ, closing at $160.95 on the first day, a 19.2% increase from the offering price. The stock price continued to rise. On June 16, SpaceX reached an intraday high of $225.64, approximately a 67% increase from the offering price; it closed that day at $201.80, still up 49.5%.

For investors who acquired shares at the offering price of $135, this meant a considerable paper profit. However, not all investors who were optimistic about SpaceX had the opportunity to buy shares at the offering price, which is a typical reflection of the scarcity of hot IPOs.

Traditional U.S. IPO allocations are primarily completed through underwriters, and institutional clients usually have more mature allocation channels and resources. For projects with high demand, even if brokers allow retail clients to subscribe, they may not receive their full allocation due to limited available shares.

By the time the stock officially enters the secondary market, investors often face a different price. This further highlights the scarce value of obtaining original allocations at the offering price.

This market demand has also provided development opportunities for new subscription platforms.

In April this year, the crypto asset trading platform Bitget launched IPO Prime, attempting to provide users with channels to participate in investments before and during the IPO phase of popular tech companies through stablecoin subscriptions and tokenized financial products. Historical subscription data for IPO Prime (Source: Bitget official website)

According to historical records disclosed on Bitget's official website, its SpaceX-related Pre-IPO projects attracted a total of $177 million in subscription funds, with 14,435 participants, achieving a subscription multiple of approximately 2.9 times compared to the $61.1 million offering size; the OpenAI-related project attracted about $120 million in subscriptions, with 5,448 participants, achieving a subscription multiple of approximately 5.7 times compared to the $21.08 million offering size.

Both products also achieved considerable gains in the secondary market: the SpaceX-related token preSPAX (later renamed preSPCX) rose from a subscription price of $650 to $948, with a maximum increase of approximately 45.8%; the OpenAI-related token preOPAI rose from $725 to $1,079, with a maximum increase of approximately 48.8%.

It is important to note that the previous SpaceX and OpenAI projects used Pre-IPO token products linked to the stock prices after the respective companies went public, where investors received a certificate of rights to the returns provided by the issuing entity, rather than actual shares of SpaceX or OpenAI.

For Anthropic's upcoming IPO, Bitget has extended the subscription mechanism to the formal stock issuance stage: the allocated assets will be delivered in the form of rANT tokens, with each rANT backed 1:1 by real Anthropic shares, and the actions of the related company will also be reflected in the tokenized assets—this is a key difference from the previous Pre-IPO products.

Starting from $100, Anthropic IPO Prime Opens Dual Rounds of Subscription

According to the announcement released by Bitget, Anthropic IPO Prime is divided into VIP and public rounds, which will open for subscription at 16:00 Beijing time on November 5 and November 10, respectively. Both rounds support participation using USDT or USDGO, with a minimum investment amount of $100. This aims to lower the threshold for ordinary people to participate in top tech IPOs, moving away from the common pitfalls of traditional new share subscriptions.

The public round is open to all eligible users, with a maximum individual investment of $25,000; the maximum investment limit for the VIP round is raised to $3 million. Notably, VIP eligibility is not limited to existing members; users who upgrade and meet the qualification requirements before the VIP round subscription ends at 16:00 on November 9 also have the opportunity to participate in the VIP priority subscription and enjoy a higher subscription limit.

Unlike participating in IPOs through regular securities accounts, investors can submit subscription applications through their existing crypto asset accounts, and the platform will connect with stock allocation channels through partner institutions, reducing the cumbersome steps of cross-market account opening and fund transfer.

According to Bitget, its historical allocation rate through cooperative channels ranges from 40% to 80%. However, this data can only provide a reference for the actual allocation ratio for Anthropic's IPO, and the final allocation will still depend on the underwriting channel's allocation results and be distributed according to the investment proportions of users in each round.

In terms of asset delivery, the allocated assets will be in the form of rANT tokens; as mentioned earlier, each rANT is backed 1:1 by real Anthropic shares, and the actions of the related company will also be reflected in the tokenized assets. However, it should be noted that there is still a legal distinction between rANT and the Anthropic shares directly held by investors, and holders will not simultaneously obtain shareholder status and voting rights.

Additionally, the subscription fees for the products are also an important factor affecting actual returns. The underwriting service fee for the public round is 5% of the actual allocated amount, while for the VIP round, it is 12%; the delivery times for the two rounds also differ, with the public round expected to deliver before the market opens on the listing day, while the VIP round is expected to deliver within 3 to 5 business days after the listing.

To complement this event, Bitget has also set up a total prize pool of $100,000 in Anthropic shares for new users, allowing users who meet the registration, deposit, subscription, and fund retention requirements to participate, further lowering the threshold for new customers to try.

From the pre-IPO related tokens of SpaceX and OpenAI to the real stock-supported IPO subscriptions of Anthropic, Bitget IPO Prime is attempting to connect the allocation resources of traditional capital markets with crypto accounts, allowing more people to participate in the hot IPOs that were originally hard to reach.

However, regarding actual returns, especially for hot IPOs, obtaining allocation qualifications is only part of the investment process; the final returns will ultimately depend on the offering price, allocation ratio, and the stock's performance after listing.

Whether it is users who receive allocations or those investors in the San Francisco Bay Area willing to exchange mansions for shares, they are essentially betting on Anthropic's sustained growth value in the coming years.

Now, as the IPO approaches, this AI company's equity is about to enter a more public and liquid capital market. Against the backdrop of strong demand and scarce shares, discussions and competition surrounding its trillion-dollar valuation will also enter a new phase.

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