- Ventuals is shutting down after generating over $650M in trading volume since its late-2025 mainnet launch.
- OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual markets settled today at TWAPs of $1,341.80 and $1,618.90 respectively.
- vHYPE holders receive full 1:1 HYPE redemptions plus accrued staking yield, with withdrawals opening June 19.
- The founding team is moving to a new, undisclosed project within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
Ventuals, the Hyperliquid-based protocol that gave retail traders leveraged exposure to pre-IPO companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, announced Monday it is winding down, closing all markets across private equities, commodities, and sector indices through June 18.
The platform launched in late 2025 on the premise widely viewed as impractical: perpetual contracts on privately held companies, available around the clock, with no paperwork, no management fees, and up to 10x leverage.
In roughly 6 months, it attracted more than 11,000 traders and surpassed $650 million in cumulative trading volume, ranking among the top 10 RWA perpetual DEXes by open interest.
Co-founder Alvin Hsia noted that employees at SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, as well as late-stage venture funds, had reached out to say they were using the platform to price their own equity stakes. Several traders put on multi-million dollar positions in the pre-IPO markets.
Settlement Timeline and What Users Should Know
Markets are being closed in stages. OpenAI and Anthropic perp positions settled today using 24-hour mark price TWAPs, $1,341.80 and $1,618.90, respectively, with funding rates zeroed out to limit exposure during thin-order-book conditions.
Commodity markets WHEAT and SOY halt June 18 at 2:30 and 3:30 pm ET, while eight index markets, including MAG7, SEMIS, and DEFENSE, wind down through the evening at CME-referenced prices. Traders are not required to act; all open positions settle automatically.
vHYPE stakers can begin withdrawing from June 19. Redemptions are processed in batches and become claimable after a standard 7.5-day unstaking period, with expected receipt around June 26 for users who initiate before the cutoff. The protocol never charged fees on vHYPE deposits or withdrawals, and all HYPE is returned 1:1, including accrued native staking yield.
No Ventuals token will be issued. Points earned on the platform carry no monetary value and will not convert to any form of consideration, a position Hsia deliberately framed: a token, in his view, only makes sense when it can generate durable economic value.
Ventuals operated inside a Hyperliquid ecosystem that continues to expand. The underlying chain recorded $1.3 billion in perpetuals open interest and over $929 million in annualized fee revenue over the past year, accounting for roughly 70% of total decentralized derivatives revenue across tracked venues.
The founding team says it will reveal its next project shortly. The sunset page at app.ventuals.com/sunset remains accessible until at least September 15, 2026.
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