Anthropic's IPO Is Poised to Send This Crypto Higher
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| By Mark Gough |
Artificial intelligence is one of the strongest long-term investment themes in crypto.
But it is also one of the easiest narratives to exploit.
A project can attach the letters “AI” to its name, release a token and build an impressive story around technology that barely exists.
We have seen plenty of those projects come and go over the past few years. And they’ve left investors in a lurch.
Sentient (SENT) is different. It doesn’t just have serious research and financial backing. It’s trying to solve a real problem within the AI sector: AI model ownership.
AI models are either open-source — meaning anyone can build and use it — or they’re closed-source. In the latter, only developers hired by the company can build for the model. And to access its output, users have to pay.
Since open-source AI is, well, open, developers have struggled to find a way to earn from their work.
Sentient hopes to change that.
And there’s a potential catalyst approaching from outside crypto that could give Sentient a boost: Anthropic’s IPO.
Some investors reportedly expect the AI company to pursue an IPO at a valuation of $2 trillion or more. With that, investors may soon start looking further down the AI market for smaller opportunities.
Sentient is one crypto project that could attract that attention.
The Problem Sentient Is Trying to Solve
Most of today’s leading AI systems are controlled by a small number of large companies. These companies fund the models, control access through private APIs and retain most of the economic value created by their platforms.
Open-source developers face almost the opposite problem.
They can publish valuable models, datasets and software for anyone to use. However, once that work is released, it becomes difficult to control how it is used or earn recurring revenue from it.
Sentient believes it has the answer: an open marketplace for artificial intelligence.1
It wants to use blockchain technology to …
- Record ownership,
- Enforce licensing conditions,
- And distribute rewards among the people who build, host, and evaluate AI products.
Its framework is called OML, which stands for “Open, Monetizable and Loyal.” And the biggest advantage is that developers can publish their work openly while still earning from it. Sentient also wants each model or product to remain linked to its original creator after it has been released and used by others.
If Sentient can make this work, developers would have a stronger reason to release their best work to an open-source AI model.
That could give closed platforms a real challenge.
How SENT Is Intended to Capture Value
According to Sentient’s published tokenomics, SENT will have three main uses.2
The first is payments and access. Users and AI agents are expected to use SENT to pay for models, data, tools and other services available through the GRID. Usage fees will then flow to the builders, hosts and evaluators providing services.
The second is staking. Token holders can stake SENT on individual Artifacts. That will signal which projects deserve support and help direct token incentives. The intention is for stakers to earn through token-emission formulas rather than receiving a direct share of every fee paid.
The third is governance. Staked SENT is intended to carry voting power over treasury spending, token emissions and important protocol upgrades.
These functions could create demand for the token. But most still need to move from the published design into visible activity across the network.
Also of note is the fact that the published tokenomics do not describe a buyback or token-burning program. SENT will therefore rely on demand for AI services, staking and governance to absorb the new supply entering the market.
This is the main part of the investment case that remains unproven.
Sentient could build popular products without creating enough demand for SENT if users can access those products without buying or holding many tokens.
Before this token can move off our watchlist, I want evidence that increased network activity produces measurable demand for the token itself.
The Anthropic Component
The Financial Times recently reported that some Anthropic investors expect the company to seek a valuation of $2 trillion or more through a possible October IPO.3
Anthropic has not set that figure. It could change before any listing.
But the size of it matters. It shows how aggressively investors are valuing the leading AI companies.
Anthropic also has the growth to support at least some of that enthusiasm. Its annualized revenue run rate reportedly exceeds $65 billion as of the end of July.4
That’s a big increase from around $9 billion at the end of 2025.
There’s a catch for any investor looking to buy after the IPO …
If Anthropic reaches the public market at anything close to a $2 trillion valuation, ordinary investors will only gain access after most of the private-market repricing has already taken place.
Put simply, early investors will be sitting on enormous gains. But public investors will be asked to buy at one of the largest valuations ever attached to a newly listed company.
I suspect that will encourage some investors to search for earlier-stage AI opportunities that remain accessible.
Decentralized AI projects such as Sentient offer one possible route.
SENT currently has a fully diluted valuation of approximately $403 million. Anthropic’s reported $2 trillion IPO valuation would be almost 5,000 times larger.
To be clear, this is not a direct valuation comparison.
Buying SENT does not give us equity in Sentient, ownership of its underlying business, or a claim on company profits the way buying future Anthropic shares does.
In addition, Anthropic already generates substantial revenue. But SENT is a crypto token with a very different economic structure.
However, investor narratives often spread from public markets into crypto. A successful Anthropic IPO could reinforce AI as one of the market’s most valuable long-term themes as it leaves investors searching for smaller projects with more room to grow.
Sentient’s strong financial backing, working products and relatively small token valuation could therefore bring it considerably more attention.
So, I consider Anthropic’s IPO a potential catalyst. Not a reason to jump into SENT today.
That said, a catalyst on the horizon this big could reinforce SENT’s underlying thesis.
The Main Risks
First red flag for potential investors is dilution.
With only around 21% of SENT circulating, the market will have to absorb years of future distributions. Community incentives may support ecosystem growth, but they can also create continuous selling pressure.5
Much of the token economy also remains theoretical, and this can’t be ignored.
Second, investors still need measurable staking activity, governance participation, Artifact payments and transparent fee data before we can judge how much demand the network may generate.
Third red flag are the technical risks, particularly around model fingerprinting.
Sentient has researched ways to prove where an AI model originated. But its own work identified weaknesses in several widely used fingerprinting methods.
I view the willingness to test these systems as a positive sign. However, the findings confirm that protecting ownership of open-source AI remains a difficult technical problem.
Finally, Sentient will also face strong competition. Bittensor (TAO), the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), Near (NEAR) and several other decentralized AI projects are already competing for developers, users and investor attention.
Liquidity remains relatively modest as well: With a circulating market cap below $100 million and daily trading volume in the single-digit millions, SENT can move sharply in either direction.
What to Watch Next
If you’re considering adding SENT to your portfolio, there are four areas you’ll want to see progress in first …
- Continued growth in recurring users, paid activity and protocol fees across Sentient Chat, Arena and the wider GRID.
- Evidence that users and developers need SENT for payments, staking and governance.
- Strong applications emerging from the $42 million ecosystem program.
- Signs that the price has formed a bottom and the downtrend is beginning to reverse.
The January 2027 unlocks remain the main deadline. Sentient needs to show that demand is growing before such a large supply becomes available.
The Bottom Line
There is plenty to like about Sentient.
It has strong financial backing …
Respected founders …
Serious research …
And products that people have already used.
Its attempt to help open-source AI developers retain ownership and earn from their work addresses a genuine problem.
But the token still has work to do.
Most of the supply isn't circulating yet. Major team and investor unlocks begin in January 2027. And we don't have enough evidence that increased use of Sentient’s products will create sustained demand for SENT.
Interested investors should look for genuine token usage and a clear improvement in the chart before taking the next step.
Best,
Mark Gough
P.S. Sentient is one way to get early access to an AI project.
And based on the math above, it may end up being a smarter long-term play than jumping into Anthropic’s IPO. In fact, over the past 15 years, only 1 out of 10 IPOs have rewarded first-day investors.
But there is a way you can improve those odds in your own investing.
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern, my colleague Chris Graebe will host an urgent briefing, Apex IPOs: The 25X Advantage.
The goal is to help you identify that 10% using Weiss’ new rating system for brand-new stocks. Testing has shown this system can help you beat the average new listing 25-to-1.
This event is free to attend. All you need to do is save your seat today.
2https://sentient.foundation/news/sent-tokenomics
3https://www.ft.com/content/01a7b883-452c-4902-b40e-e3957de5d89e?syn-25a6b1a6=1
