Quick Insights

  • SpaceX shares closed at $160.95 on Friday's Nasdaq debut, up 19.22% from the $135 IPO price, peaking earlier in the session at $176.52.
  • The company raised a record $75 billion and reached a market cap above $2 trillion, surpassing Saudi Aramco's 2019 $29 billion raise as the largest IPO in history.
  • Elon Musk became the world's first paper trillionaire, with his SpaceX stake alone worth around $690 billion and his combined net worth estimated near $1.1 trillion.
  • For crypto markets, the IPO confirms SpaceX's 18,712 BTC treasury holding and settles weeks of speculation on pre-IPO perpetual futures that traded on Binance, Hyperliquid and other venues.

SpaceX made its long-awaited Nasdaq debut on Friday, closing up 19.22% in a session that produced the largest IPO in market history and minted the world's first trillionaire. Shares opened at $150, peaked at $176.52, and settled at $160.95, lifting the company's market capitalisation above $2 trillion and pushing Elon Musk's net worth past the $1 trillion mark for the first time on paper. For crypto markets, the story carries more weight than a typical equity listing, because SpaceX is now the largest public company holding Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

$75B
Raised in the largest IPO in history
$2T+
SpaceX market capitalisation at close
+19.22%
First-day gain over the $135 IPO price
18,712
Bitcoin held on SpaceX's balance sheet

The Numbers Are Almost Too Large to Process

The $75 billion raise more than doubles Saudi Aramco's $29 billion record from 2019, and at $2 trillion SpaceX is now the sixth-largest publicly traded company in the United States. Demand was extraordinary. Reuters reported the IPO attracted more than $250 billion in orders, with Bloomberg adding that retail investors alone submitted more than $70 billion in requests. The dual-class share structure preserves Musk's voting control, and his stake is now worth around $690 billion before counting his Tesla holdings and xAI, which SpaceX absorbed earlier this year.

Musk's $1.1 trillion combined net worth makes him the first paper trillionaire in history. The "paper" qualifier matters. The number reflects the market value of his SpaceX, Tesla and xAI holdings, not cash. If Musk tried to sell even a fraction of those stakes, the share prices would fall sharply and the trillion-dollar figure would compress. Wealth at this scale is concentrated equity, not liquidity.

SpaceX Is Now the Largest Public Company Holding Bitcoin

The detail most relevant to Nakamoto Daily readers sits inside SpaceX's S-1 filing, which we covered when the company first filed it last month. SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC on its balance sheet, acquired at a cost basis of roughly $35,000 per coin. With Bitcoin trading well above that level today, the unrealised gain alone is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the holding now sits behind one of the most-watched public companies in the world.

Why SpaceX's BTC Position Matters for Crypto
  • Public visibility: SpaceX's BTC holding now appears in quarterly filings scrutinised by every Wall Street analyst
  • Validation effect: a $2 trillion company holding Bitcoin reduces the career risk for other CFOs considering the same allocation
  • Treasury company comparison: SpaceX now joins Strategy, Tesla and others on the public-company Bitcoin balance sheet list
  • Market-cap effect: at $2T, SpaceX's 18,712 BTC is a tiny share of the firm's value, which makes the position both defensible and easy to expand

For context on where SpaceX sits among public crypto-holding firms, our Bitcoin treasury companies guide tracks the full list. SpaceX's entry shifts the institutional Bitcoin story from a debate about strategy to one about scale, since no firm previously holding Bitcoin came close to a $2 trillion market cap.

Pre-IPO Perpetual Futures Were Already Trading SpaceX

The other crypto thread here is the pre-IPO derivatives market. In the weeks leading up to the listing, crypto exchanges including Binance, Hyperliquid's Trade.xyz, OKX and Crypto.com all launched pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts tracking expected SpaceX valuations. Polymarket bettors had priced more than a 70% chance the IPO would close above a $2 trillion valuation. Both groups were broadly right.

That the crypto markets called the outcome before traditional markets opened is itself a quietly significant point. Perpetual futures on private-company valuations were a novelty just two months ago. They have now produced a successful price discovery for what turned out to be the largest IPO in history. Expect more of these contracts on the next round of major private companies, particularly Anthropic, OpenAI and Stripe, all of which are reportedly considering public listings.

The post-debut question is whether SpaceX shares can hold these levels. As CNN's Michelle Fleury noted from Times Square as the closing bell rang, "analysts tell me the real test starts after the opening day excitement fades." A 19% pop on day one is impressive but historically common for high-profile IPOs. The trajectory over the next several quarters, as SpaceX reports earnings, gives Bitcoin reporting on its balance sheet, and integrates xAI, will determine whether the trillion-dollar Musk number sticks or compresses back to something less symbolic.

Disclaimer: Nakamoto Daily provides information for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing published here constitutes financial, investment, or trading advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.