Earlier this morning, Anthropic explicitly called out several unauthorized sources of supply. In the last two weeks, I’ve reviewed and rejected ~15 blocks, including two of the ones Anthropic named.

These blocks are trickling their way down to retail investors now – just this morning, I had a call with someone who was offered Anthropic shares with a $25k minimum, 25% carry through a “single layer” SPV.

I told him this was structurally impossible.

And while they haven’t named-and-shamed specific funds, Anduril has also been fighting this battle against fake blocks for a long time – categorically, any dual-layer exposure to Anduril is unsanctioned by the company and, as such, violates its transfer restrictions.

The trickier point here is about SPVs. Both Anthropic and Anduril call out SPVs as unauthorized, but do allow their existing GPs to take down large allocations through coinvestment vehicles. Coinvestment vehicles are also SPVs, but they are attached to a broader fund and blessed by the company.

So how does an investor know whether the access they are being offered is legitimate vs. unauthorized?

Unfortunately, there’s no magic checklist. It takes a lot of experience, knowing the right questions to ask, familiarity with the company's cap table, and trust in the counterparties you’re dealing with. And if you don’t have every single one of those, you’re better off not rolling the dice. There are other, better deals to be done.

If you’d like me to look at a block you’re considering, feel free to reach out.