SpaceX Valuation Bets Fuel $3.2B Crypto Trading Frenzy

The private market for SpaceX's valuation has become a hotbed of activity in the crypto space. With the company set to list on Nasdaq, traders are taking advantage of synthetic pre-IPO perpetuals that allow them to bet on the stock's price before it goes public.

Trade.xyz was the first exchange to list the contract, SPCX-USDC, on Hyperliquid on May 18 with a $150 reference. The initial activity reached ~$33M volume and ~$21.8M open interest by the end of the day, according to CoinDesk.

Binance quickly followed suit with its own contract, calling it the first Pre-IPO Perpetual Contract on Binance Futures. By May 21, trading volumes had surged, with Talos data reported by Reuters showing ~$3.2B traded and ~$390M open interest across eight venues between May 17, June 11.

However, when SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share on June 11, some SPCX perps were trading around $176, $183, a ~36% premium, as tracked by CoinDesk. This discrepancy highlights the complexities and risks involved in these synthetic markets.