Elon's $1.8T SpaceX IPO sucks $180B out of crypto in classic pre-launch liquidity vacuum 🚀

SpaceX's initial public offering has drawn roughly $250 billion in investor demand against a planned $75 billion raise, putting the deal at almost four times oversubscribed and on track to be the largest public offering ever at a $1.8 trillion valuation, Reuters reported. Pricing is expected Thursday, with trading slated to begin Friday at $135 per share, though order books can still shift as large institutions typically submit late bids. Bankers told Reuters that long-only funds have placed "sizable orders," underscoring unusually deep institutional appetite for the Elon Musk-led company, which is set to list under the ticker SPCX.

The deal has coincided with sharp losses across risk assets, with crypto markets shedding more than $180 billion over the past week and US tech stocks sliding in the five trading days leading up to pricing. Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, described the move to Cointelegraph as a "classic pre-mega-IPO liquidity squeeze playing out in real time," attributing declines in crypto and tech to a "direct 'IPO tax'" from the record-breaking deal. Adziima characterized the rotation as "temporary" rather than the start of a broader bear market, noting that oversubscription with "massive orders confirms the hype" while pulling capital from "correlated risk assets," particularly crypto, given its retail composition and sensitivity to growth narratives.

SpaceX's investment case is anchored by its Starlink satellite internet business, which has become a significant revenue and profitability driver, and by a $23 trillion market opportunity the company has cited for its artificial intelligence offerings. Crypto venues have moved quickly to monetize the demand, with Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and Bybit launching pre-IPO perpetual futures for SPCX this month. Shunyet Jan, head of spot and derivatives at Binance, told Cointelegraph that early traction "reflects growing user interest in gaining regulated-style market exposure to high-profile private companies through this native product," with Binance's pre-IPO perps generating $2.1 billion in cumulative trading volume across 18 days and participation from more than 130 countries. On the decentralized side, Hyperliquid recorded $70 million in SPCX perpetual trading volume over the past 24 hours.