SpaceX Shares Moon, Crypto Tokenized IPOs Crash Back to Earth 🚀

Bybit, Binance, Bitget Wallet and MEXC refunded users and canceled their tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns on Friday after Kraken-owned xStocks failed to deliver the underlying share allocations, exposing structural limits in tokenized equity infrastructure during one of the largest IPO events in U.S. history. SpaceX raised $75 billion in its Nasdaq debut, with shares opening at $150, an 11% increase over the $135 IPO price, before climbing more than 26% to $172.31 and closing the day at $161.11, lifting the company's market capitalization above $2 trillion and briefly pushing founder Elon Musk's net worth into trillionaire territory. The IPO was reportedly more than four times oversubscribed, and that demand pressure cascaded into the tokenized distribution channels that crypto platforms had marketed as a way to democratize retail access to private and public market offerings.

Bybit said in an X post, "Due to xStocks' inability to deliver the underlying assets, no SpaceX allocations were received. As a result, subscribed users will not receive SpaceX allocations," and confirmed that 100% of subscription funds would be returned to users' original funding accounts with no action required. The exchange also announced an additional reward for eligible participants based on a 10% APR over a fixed 4-day period, credited automatically. Binance followed hours later, stating it could not proceed with its SPCXx campaign "due to circumstances outside of our control," and said it would issue full USDC refunds while distributing a $1 million SPCXB token airdrop equally among campaign participants. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao posted on X, "Protect users when things don't go as planned." Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan acknowledged the setback on X, writing, "It's disappointing that this didn't work out in the end. We are in the process of sending out the refunds... Yes, we have hit a setback, and trust in the industry has taken a blow, but we'll come out of this stronger." MEXC also confirmed refunds to affected users.

Binance's SpaceX tokenized IPO campaign had attracted over $557 million in USDC deposits before cancellation, underscoring the scale of retail demand that ultimately could not be matched by available allocations. Screenshots shared on social media showed some Robinhood customers receiving only partial fills, with one user reporting 19 shares after requesting 100, while Kraken-linked IPO access channels said allocations were distributed proportionally among eligible users given unusually high global demand. xStocks' own disclaimers on X noted that "IPO xStocks are tokenized equities providing price exposure only—not direct ownership," and that an allocation was never guaranteed. A representative for xStocks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The disruption highlighted a core limitation of tokenized stock systems: although marketed as blockchain-native financial products, the platforms still rely on real shares sourced through traditional financial channels, leaving them exposed to the same supply constraints, institutional allocation systems and private market bottlenecks that govern conventional IPO distribution. The episode arrived as tokenized equity products gained traction across the industry, with Binance pointing to SPCXB as a token "designed to track SpaceX shares and is backed 1:1 by real shares held through regulated custody structures." Binance Wallet was also relying on xStocks for the offering.

Crypto-native traders had already positioned for the event through derivatives, with pre-IPO perpetual contracts on SpaceX (SPCX) on Hyperliquid amassing over $240 million in open interest and $220 million in 24-hour volume, making SPCX the eighth-largest asset on the platform at the time. Coinbase International offered a similar product, letting users take long or short exposure to SpaceX before the official public listing. The simultaneous surge in tokenized IPO demand and the cancellation of multiple campaigns underscored how, even as tokenization expands access on the front end, the back end still bends to the supply realities of the traditional equity markets it seeks to augment.