SpaceX IPO Draws Record Retail Demand, Crypto Platforms See $100M Day

SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq on June 12 under the ticker SPCX, pricing its IPO at $135 a share. The stock opened at $150 and closed near $161, up roughly 19% on the day. The listing pushed the company's market value above $2 trillion.

Retail investors piled in faster than any recent debut. According to Vanda Research, net retail purchases of SPCX on day one outpaced Nvidia's by more than 3.5 times. More than 490 million shares traded hands during the session, placing SPCX among the most actively traded stocks in recent memory.

The stock hit an intraday high of $176.52 before settling back. Post-market activity added another 3.5%.

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. A second ceremony ran simultaneously at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas.

Crypto-native investors did not wait for traditional brokerage accounts. Tokenized equity platforms saw immediate demand. On Gate.io, SPCX trading volume crossed $100 million on its first day. That compared with $4 million for Circle and $3.5 million for Tesla on the same platform. Broader equity-related trading on Gate.io typically runs between $10 million and $25 million in daily volume across all listed assets. SPCX blew through that range within hours.

Perpetual futures tied to SPCX on Hyperliquid also saw heavy activity. The SPCX-USDC perpetual contract traded around $176, roughly 30% above the IPO price. Over $233 million in volume changed hands in those contracts within 24 hours, with open interest climbing above $263 million.

The demand reflects years of pent-up interest from investors who tracked SpaceX as a private company. The question now is whether the retail frenzy sustains into the second week or fades as early buyers take profits.