Retail traders can now take leveraged bets on OpenAI’s pre-IPO valuation through a synthetic perpetual futures contract on Aster, the multi-chain decentralized perpetual exchange. The product, trading under the ticker $OPENAI, offers up to 5x leverage and tracks market-implied share prices of the AI giant.
How the synthetic contract works
The $OPENAI perpetual contract is entirely synthetic. It does not represent direct ownership of underlying shares, does not confer equity rights, and has no connection to OpenAI’s actual cap table. Instead, the contract uses oracle-driven implied valuations to track what the market believes OpenAI shares are worth.
This matters because OpenAI has actively discouraged unauthorized trading of its shares on secondary markets. Synthetic products sidestep that friction entirely, since no actual equity changes hands.
Aster launched the $OPENAI contract on May 26, following a similar synthetic perpetual for SpaceX ($SPCX) that went live on May 18. Both products offer the same 5x leverage ceiling. A promotional trading multiplier of 1.2x was available until June 2 to incentivize early volume.
