Retail investors hunting for exposure to Anthropic, the private artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, have been buying tokens on a crypto platform that claims to mirror stakes in the firm, but at least one trader is now discovering those gains may exist only on screen.
PreStocks, a platform that issues tokens on the Solana blockchain intended to represent exposure to private companies, has left investors facing a severe liquidity squeeze, with on-chain data showing one trader's Anthropic holdings have swelled to a $1.5 million unrealised gain that appears largely impossible to convert into cash.
The trader holds 2,593 of the 8,227 Anthropic tokens in circulation, a 31% stake that dwarfs the available liquidity on decentralised exchanges.
Simulations run by DL News across major Solana exchange aggregators found the trader could sell roughly 950 tokens at best, but only by accepting a 34% discount to the approximately $911 market price, yielding around $572,000, broadly equivalent to the original outlay.
None of the exchanges tested could complete swaps for the full holding.
PreStocks launched in August and advertises retail access to private companies with no investment minimums and simplified onboarding, creating what it calls special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to hold the underlying positions.
The platform then issues tradable tokens on Solana's blockchain that are intended to mirror those SPV stakes on a one-to-one basis.
The model has attracted interest from retail investors eager to gain exposure to high-profile private technology companies such as Anthropic, which has raised billions from backers including Google and Salesforce but remains closed to public markets.
However, critics have raised concerns about thin liquidity on secondary markets and limited transparency around the SPVs underpinning the tokens.
A PreStocks spokesperson told DL News that "third-party attestation reports are a work-in-progress," an acknowledgement that independent verification of the underlying assets has yet to be completed.
The platform says investors can request direct redemptions rather than selling on the open market, but the process requires fees, know-your-customer checks and depends on PreStocks' ability to liquidate the underlying private-market positions, a process that can take weeks or months.
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The arrangement highlights a tension at the heart of the tokenised private equity model: blockchain-based tokens can trade around the clock, but the illiquid assets they claim to represent cannot be bought or sold with anything like the same speed.
For the trader sitting on a seven-figure paper profit, the distinction between a token price and realisable value has become painfully concrete.
The recap
- Trader holds 31% of the 8,227 Anthropic tokens on PreStocks
- Best simulated sale: 950 tokens at 34% discount, $572,000
- Redemptions require KYC, fees and platform liquidation capability
