SpaceX IPO Ignites Crypto Market Frenzy with Record $9 Billion in Trading

SpaceX's highly anticipated IPO sparked a frenzy in both traditional and crypto markets. The company priced its shares at $135 per share under the ticker SPCX on June 12-13, then promptly closed up about 19% near $161. This pop pushed SpaceX's market capitalization past the $2 trillion mark, placing it alongside the largest publicly traded companies.

The traditional stock market was just half of the story. Binance had already launched its SPCXUSDT perpetual futures contract back on May 21, weeks before the first share changed hands on Nasdaq. By the time the IPO happened, crypto traders had been positioning themselves for days. The result: Binance captured over 60% of all SpaceX derivatives volume across both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

The use of perpetual futures contracts allowed traders to bet on the price of an asset with leverage, without ever owning the underlying shares. This type of contract doesn't expire like traditional futures, so traders can hold a position indefinitely. Binance offered up to 5x leverage for SPCXUSDT contracts, meaning a trader with $10,000 could take a $50,000 position on SpaceX's share price movement.