New Crypto Exchange Lets You Bet on OpenAI's Future Value

MNX launches futures contracts letting traders speculate on private AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, challenging rivals OKX and Bitget.

A new way to bet on AI companies — before they even go public — has just arrived.

A cryptocurrency exchange called MNX went live this week, letting people speculate on how much famous artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Moonshot might be worth in the future.

Here's the twist: these AI companies are private, meaning their shares aren't sold on regular stock markets like Apple's or Tesla's are. Normally, ordinary investors can't buy into them at all. MNX offers a workaround using futures contracts — agreements to bet on the future price of something without actually owning it.

How MNX works:

Its contracts expire at the end of 2027 (they have a set end date)
There are no recurring funding fees (small ongoing charges some rivals charge to keep a bet open)
Traders can use up to 3x leverage (borrowing to triple their bet size — which also triples potential losses)
It does not serve U.S. customers yet, but plans to get licenses

MNX was built by Manifold Markets and raised $6.4 million from investors led by Village Global.

Why this matters: Competitors like OKX and Bitget already offer similar bets using "perpetual futures" (contracts that never expire). MNX's co-founder argues that approach is flawed for private companies, because their shares rarely trade and are hard to price fairly — making those bets easy to manipulate.

One important warning: MNX sets prices based on its own trading activity, not real-world share sales. So when a contract ends, the final settlement price may differ from what shares actually cost in a private deal.

The bigger picture is enormous. Major tech companies are expected to spend over $800 billion on AI this year and more than $1 trillion next year. MNX is betting that financial tools around the AI boom haven't caught up yet — and wants to fill that gap by eventually offering markets on AI revenue, jobs, housing, and computing power.

Bottom line: MNX gives everyday traders a risky new door into the AI gold rush — but with uncertain pricing and high leverage, it's far from a safe bet.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/13/new-crypto-exchange-takes-on-okx-bitget-with-unique-way-to-trade-ai-giants