SpaceX Lands $75B IPO, Takes Bitcoin Along for the Ride (and the Liquidity Drain) 🚀

Elon Musk's SpaceX priced the largest IPO in U.S. history on Friday, offering 555 million shares at $135 apiece to raise $75 billion and valuing the rocket, satellite and AI company at $1.77 trillion, according to an SEC filing. The listing on the Nasdaq also carried with it the largest bitcoin position ever attached to an IPO: 18,712 BTC, purchased for roughly $661 million and valued at approximately $1.29 billion as of March 31, per the company's S-1. SpaceX described the holdings as a strategic reserve for excess cash, distinct from dedicated bitcoin vehicles such as Strategy and BitMine, and small enough to be a rounding error against a valuation of over $1.8 trillion.

The capital raise has drawn warnings of short-term liquidity strain on crypto. Spencer Hallarn, global head of over-the-counter trading at GSR, said the offering must source $75 billion from existing markets. "Crypto is a funding currency for a lot of this," Hallarn said. "We've got to find $75 billion for this IPO, and it's got to come from somewhere." Adam Morgan McCarthy, lead researcher at digital asset liquidity firm LO:TECH, echoed that view, telling Decrypt, "This IPO is unlikely to be the catalyst that turns Bitcoin around. If anything, it is more likely to continue sucking the air out of the room." Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at CEX.IO, added that demand has been 5x oversubscribed and has "likely absorbed capital that might otherwise have gone into crypto or other speculative markets."

Bitcoin is already under pressure as those flows converge. The $BTC price recently tested support near $61,800, down more than 50% from its record high set last year, and posted its biggest weekly drop since late 2022. Crypto ETF outflows have accelerated in recent weeks, and Strategy, the largest corporate holder, has sold bitcoin recently. McCarthy argued that broad-market index additions, rather than ETFs, will deliver SpaceX exposure to most institutional holders within days of trading, increasing the rotation pressure on the asset class.

The IPO's structure may temper that drag. SpaceX has reserved about 30% of the offering, roughly $22.5 billion, for retail investors, with participation reportedly opened from as little as $2,000. On Hyperliquid, pre-IPO perpetual contracts on SpaceX (SPCX) have amassed over $240 million in open interest and $220 million in 24-hour volume, ranking eighth by volume on the platform and on par with $SOL, though they offer only 5x leverage compared with Solana's 20x. Otychenko noted that "if the stock delivers strong post-listing gains — and SPCX currently suggests so — some of those initial gains could eventually rotate into crypto," particularly among retail traders.

SpaceX's bitcoin stake, acquired at a roughly $35,000 cost basis, remains up about 80% from its initial buys, though $BTC is already 37% below its January high. Fair-value accounting will mark the position to market each quarter, recording gains and losses regardless of whether SpaceX trades the coins, the same accounting framework that produced hundreds of millions in paper losses for Tesla during prior drawdowns. The disclosure disclosed the real number was more than twice the roughly 8,300 bitcoin that onchain analysts had previously estimated, meaning one of the most scrutinized private companies in the world held a billion-dollar bitcoin position that the public's best guess missed by half until securities law required the answer.