CoinDesk
Anthropic's pre-IPO market sold off over the weekend after the U.S. government ordered the company to shut down access to its two most advanced models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns over a potential jailbreak. The Anthropic perpetual contract on Hyperliquid — a cash-settled instrument tracking where traders expect the equity to price — dropped about 3.7% on Saturday to roughly $1,627, from all-time highs above $1,800 in the days after Fable 5 launched. Open interest on the contract sits near $8.6 million, small relative to the SpaceX perp but meaningful for a company that has not yet filed for an IPO.
Why it matters
Anthropic received the directive at 5:21 p.m. ET on Friday. The order, issued under national security authorities, required the company to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for any foreign national, inside or outside the United States, and then execute a full shutdown for all customers. Anthropic complied but pushed back hard in a public statement: it reviewed the jailbreak technique and concluded the finding is narrow, not a universal bypass, and involves identifying a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities. The company said OpenAI's GPT-5.5 can find the same vulnerabilities without any bypass at all, and that the government has so far provided only verbal evidence of the claim. Applying the standard across the industry, Anthropic argued, "would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers."
Market impact
The crypto market is pricing the shutdown as a negative for the IPO case — the perp's slide from post-launch highs is the cleanest read. Anthropic built its brand around safety-first development, which makes the public dispute with a national security directive unusually sharp. The first question for the listing is whether the order gets reversed, narrowed, or extended to other model classes once Anthropic publishes its technical rebuttal, which it said would arrive within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions
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Why did the US government order Anthropic to shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5?
Washington cited national security concerns over a potential jailbreak of the models. The directive required Anthropic to suspend access for any foreign national and then execute a full shutdown for all customers.
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What did Anthropic say in response to the shutdown order?
Anthropic complied but publicly disputed the directive, saying the alleged jailbreak is narrow, involves previously known minor vulnerabilities, and that other models like GPT-5.5 can find them without any bypass. It warned the standard would halt all frontier model deployments.
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How much did Anthropic's pre-IPO shares drop?
The Anthropic perpetual contract on Hyperliquid fell about 3.7% on Saturday to roughly $1,627, down from all-time highs above $1,800 in the days after Fable 5 launched. Open interest sits near $8.6 million.
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What is the Anthropic perpetual contract on Hyperliquid?
It is a cash-settled derivative that tracks where traders expect Anthropic's equity to price in a future IPO. It allows pre-IPO price discovery without direct share ownership, and is used to gauge sentiment on listing prospects.
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What happens next for Anthropic's IPO case?
Anthropic said it will publish a technical rebuttal of the jailbreak claim within 24 hours. The order could be reversed, narrowed, or extended to other model classes, and the outcome will determine whether the pre-IPO selloff deepens or reverses.
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