SpaceX IPO Raises $75B, Crypto Perps See $1.4B Volume

SpaceX pulled off the largest IPO in history, pricing 555.6 million shares at $135 each and raising roughly $75 billion. Saudi Aramco's 2019 offering, the previous record holder, brought in about $29 billion. SpaceX more than doubled it.

The stock debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX on June 12, opening near $150 per share before hitting an intraday peak around $225. By the close, shares had gained roughly 19%, pushing SpaceX's market capitalization past $2 trillion.

Pre-IPO demand was staggering. Reports indicated the offering was oversubscribed by as much as four times, meaning investors wanted to buy roughly four dollars' worth of shares for every dollar actually available. Retail allocation was initially targeted at 30% of the offering. The figure was adjusted after institutional and individual demand overwhelmed expectations.

SpaceX priced its shares on June 11, with trading commencing the following day. The gap between the $135 offering price and the $150 open alone represented an 11% pop before regular investors could even place their first trade.

Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange, reported $1.4 billion in trading volume for SPCX perpetual futures contracts on the debut day alone. That made SPCX the largest single market on the entire Hyperliquid platform, beating out perennial favorites like Bitcoin and Ethereum perps.

Analysts noted that the massive capital rotation into SpaceX's equity offering created short-term liquidity pressures across parts of the crypto market. The $75 billion raise pulled a significant chunk of speculative capital out of crypto perpetuals and into the IPO, compressing funding rates on major perp pairs. Bitcoin perpetual funding flipped negative briefly during the session, a sign that leveraged longs were being closed to free up cash for the SPCX allocation.

The effect was most visible on Hyperliquid itself. The exchange's total open interest dropped roughly 8% on June 12, with the SPCX perp absorbing the majority of the volume that normally flows into BTC and ETH contracts. Traders who rotated out of crypto perps to chase the SpaceX pop now face a choice: hold SPCX perp exposure through the volatility of a newly public stock, or rotate back into crypto after funding rates normalize.

The SPCX perp itself traded at a premium of 15-20% over the spot price in the first hours, reflecting the difficulty of getting direct equity allocation. That premium narrowed to roughly 5% by the close as arbitrageurs stepped in.