Original article | Odaily Odaily(@OdailyChina)
Author｜Azuma (@Azuma_eth)
SpaceX, Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight giant, is expected to officially launch its IPO this Friday.
Multiple foreign media outlets have previously reported that SpaceX plans to issue approximately 556 million new shares at $135 per share, raising about $75 billion, corresponding to a company valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion. If the transaction is completed as planned, it will surpass the record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019, becoming the largest IPO in global history.
As the absolute focus of the global capital market, although some Wall Street research institutions still disagree on SpaceX's high valuation of $1.75 trillion, this has not dampened investors' frenzy. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other Wall Street investment banks have even engaged in a "price war" to compete for underwriting positions, driving underwriting fees down to an unprecedented level below 0.75%—traditional IPO underwriting fees are typically between 4% and 7%.
However, for most ordinary investors, the real question is not whether they should be optimistic about SpaceX, but how to buy SpaceX shares.
Traditional brokerage channels often suffer from high entry barriers, limited quotas, and uncertain success rates. However, with the accelerated integration of the crypto industry and traditional finance, investment channels surrounding SpaceX are becoming increasingly diverse. From IPO subscription activities launched by CEXs to pre-IPO equity tokens and various pre-market contract products, different types of investors are vying for this "ticket" to SpaceX through various means.
Participation path inventory
Compliant securities firms: the mainstream channel, but not everyone can participate.
For eligible investors, participating in SpaceX's IPO through traditional brokerage firms remains the most mainstream channel. Investors can acquire actual shares at a price close to the offering price and are protected by a mature securities regulatory system. However, these channels often have eligibility restrictions based on region and asset size, and high-profile IPOs like SpaceX typically experience oversubscription, making the final allocation still highly uncertain.
CEX IPO Subscription: The Channel Most Similar to Mainstream Brokerages
In addition to traditional brokerages, some crypto exchage, including Kraken, Bybit, and Gate, have recently launched SpaceX IPO subscription events.
The three platforms operate on largely similar models. Kraken and Bybit both partner with xStocks, Kraken's stock token issuance platform. For subscriptions, users must first complete KYC verification and submit a subscription application and lock in corresponding funds during the subscription period. If they are ultimately allocated an allocation, they can acquire SpaceX-related rights at a price close to the IPO price; if they are not allocated or only partially allocated, the remaining funds will be returned to their account.
If the subscription is successful on Kraken or Bybit, users will receive SPCXx. SPCXx is a 1:1 tokenized representation of SpaceX equity, but it only provides price exposure and does not have voting rights or dividend rights. In other words, users do not receive actual shares.
Even so, compared to pre-IPO platforms or pre-market contracts discussed below, subscribing through these channels still has a significant advantage—price. Under the existing rules of Kraken, Bybit, and Gate, users will be able to participate in the subscription at the IPO price, plus an additional 5% underwriting fee (so the cost will still be higher than with compliant brokers). If the final IPO price is $135, the actual subscription cost will be approximately $141.75. This means investors have the opportunity to gain exposure to SpaceX at a cost close to the IPO price, without incurring excessive secondary market premiums.
However, this channel still has certain thresholds and quota restrictions. Although not as stringent as compliant brokerages, Kraken, Bybit, and Gate all have set KYC requirements and geographical restrictions for participation. Bybit also requires that only VIP users can participate. In terms of quotas, the allocation is determined by the final underwriter rather than CEX or xStocks, and there is no guarantee of "winning" after subscription.
Pre-market crypto stocks and contracts: the best way to get on board
If you don't want to participate in the kind of subscription gamble where you "rely on luck and wait to win," but instead want your funds to "buy as soon as they're available and get on board immediately," then pre-IPO cryptocurrency stocks and contracts are currently the most flexible way to participate.
Compared to the brokerage and CEX subscription channels mentioned earlier, the biggest advantage of pre-market crypto and stock trading contracts lies in their freedom . Users do not need to wait for allocation results, nor are there any quota restrictions. As long as the market has sufficient liquidity, theoretically, any size of SpaceX exposure can be opened at any time. However, since pre-market trading essentially activates secondary market speculation in advance, these products often have a certain premium over the proposed IPO price, meaning the cost of establishing a position is higher than $135.
Currently, pre-market related products on the market can be roughly divided into two categories. The first category is cryptocurrency-equity products launched by platforms such as PreStocks, Jarsy, and Tessera; the second category is contract products launched by platforms such as Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Hyperliquid.
Crypto-equity products typically employ an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) holding model, where the platform or a third-party entity holds the corresponding shares and then issues mapped rights to users. The advantage of crypto-equities lies in their relatively simple structure, lacking complex mechanisms such as leverage, funding fees, and rebase. However, these products often suffer from limited liquidity, and there has been some recent controversy regarding the compliance of the SPV holding model. Therefore, this channel is not highly recommended for users.
Compared to cryptocurrency and stock products, pre-market contracts typically offer better liquidity, more flexible trading mechanisms, and a wider range of strategy options. In addition to long, investors can also participate in price speculation by short, making this potentially a more convenient channel for users accustomed to trading on CEXs or DEXs.
However, it's important to note that SpaceX's pre-market price is not entirely consistent across platforms like Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Hyperliquid. This is partly due to the different price discovery mechanisms employed by each platform, but more importantly, it's because they use different share capital data and valuation methods. For example, OKX currently uses the share capital data from its S-1 filing (12.52 billion shares), while Binance will soon adjust to the post-IPO share capital data (13.08 billion shares).
Recently, as details of SpaceX's IPO have become clearer, various platforms have successively rebased their data to correct the previously used equity valuation methods. However, due to differences in the timing of the adjustments and the standards adopted, a price difference still exists between different platforms, and some cross-platform arbitrage opportunities have emerged during this period.
Therefore, for investors who want to position themselves in SpaceX through pre-market contracts, in addition to paying attention to the prices on each platform, it is even more necessary to understand the equity size, valuation calculation logic, and historical rebase of the products. Otherwise, seemingly similar prices may actually represent different valuation levels.
Post-market trading: Observing first might not be a bad idea.
Of course, if you still have concerns about pre-market speculation, waiting until SpaceX officially goes public before deciding whether to participate is also a reasonable option. After all, once SpaceX is truly on the public market, investors will face a market with a more transparent price discovery mechanism and more unified trading rules.
For users, the number of trading channels available will also increase. Referring to the current situation of listed US stocks, platforms such as Binance, OKX, Bitget, Hyperliquid, Ondo, xStocks, and Backpack have all launched relatively mature cryptocurrency-equity or related derivative products.
Following SpaceX's IPO, the market will likely reach a consensus on key data such as share capital and valuation methods, and the price differences between different platforms will probably gradually narrow. For investors who are not in a hurry, waiting for the market to complete price discovery before deciding whether to buy in may be a more prudent approach.
Significance of the times: Top unicorns finally open their doors to retail investors.
Looking back, SpaceX's IPO has attracted so much attention not only because it may break global capital market fundraising records, but also because it embodies the imaginations of many investors about the "next generation of companies".
For a long time, top unicorns like SpaceX were typically reserved for institutional investors, venture capital funds, and a small number of high-net-worth individuals. Ordinary investors could only participate years after the company went public. This time, however, increasingly diverse participation channels—whether through traditional brokerages, CEX subscriptions, pre-market cryptocurrency trading, or pre-market contracts—are allowing more people to join this capital feast earlier.
Of course, different channels come with different costs, risks and uncertainties, but at least retail investors finally have a hammer to break through the capital blockade.
