Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) published his forecast for the development of capital markets, stating that the traditional IPO model will move entirely onto the blockchain. According to him, tokenizing public offerings will provide companies with round-the-clock liquidity, seamless interoperability with DeFi protocols, and direct access to global retail capital.
The main confirmation of this thesis right now comes from the artificial intelligence sector, represented by Anthropic, the creator of Claude, whose pre-market has literally exploded: trading volumes in on-chain derivatives tied to its shares have surged into the millions just a month before the official opening bell on Wall Street.
CZ's forecast rests on on-chain infrastructure for real-world assets (RWA) with a total market capitalization of $33.6 billion, of which tokenized stocks and ETFs account for around $3 billion.
Binance's bStocks platform holds 21% of this segment ($627.5 million), with 981,215 holders, while Circle Internet Group ($103.6 million) and SpaceX ($63.4 million) lead its trading turnover.
At the same time, the total value of tokenized stocks remains a drop in the ocean compared with the traditional U.S. stock market, whose capitalization exceeds $55 trillion, while average daily trading turnover on the NYSE alone stands at $100–150 billion.
Selling what does not yet exist: How Anthropic's pre-IPO boom works
Anthropic's official roadshow is scheduled for mid-October 2026. The startup's strong fundamentals — reaching $65 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the summer and posting its first operating profit — triggered an aggressive rally in pre-IPO derivatives, which have been trading in Web3 since June.
Against the backdrop of CZ's remarks, pre-market trading volumes entered a phase of explosive growth:
- Binance (TradFi Perps): The ANTHROPICUSDT contract stood at 2,012.50 USDT, with a daily trading volume of $21.1 million. The daily chart shows a strong bullish structure: the asset has fully recovered from its July decline to 1,300 USDT and reached new highs.
- Hyperliquid (DEX): On the decentralized platform, the ANTH-USDC contract is trading at a premium, priced at $2,157.3 (+7.78% over 24 hours). Open interest stands at $22.5 million, while daily turnover holds at $15.9 million.
Combined buying activity on both exchanges puts the AI developer's expected valuation at around $2 trillion.
The main barrier to integrating these markets remains the legal nature of the instruments. Exchanges explicitly warn in their disclaimers that pre-IPO derivatives are purely synthetic contracts based on price expectations. They are not directly linked to the share issuer and do not grant investors voting rights before expiration.
Nevertheless, derivatives trading will automatically end on the listing day, with settlement at the actual opening price of the shares on the traditional exchange. And the fact that, a month before the official offering, the traditional investment banking sector is forced to pay attention to the multimillion-dollar, round-the-clock trading volumes on Binance and Hyperliquid confirms CZ's logic — the boundaries between traditional IPOs and blockchain are blurring.
