The biggest IPO ever is going head-to-head with crypto infrastructure.The world's biggest IPO ever faces off with crypto infrastructure. What actually happened and what it means:

It's been a long time since most retail investors were able to participate in an IPO at the offering price. It required a good bank, a right address, a right connection. More of the same was the case with SpaceX, the most awaited public listing in years.The most awaited public listing of the year, SpaceX, was looking like more of the same. But Bybit changed all that.

Bybit is one of the first crypto exchanges in the world to provide tokenized IPO at the IPO price with the launch of IPO Express on June 7, 2026. SpaceX is the first offering. The trade of the tokenized shares started on June 12, the day SpaceX became a public company on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX.

What SpaceX will be like in 2026
It's no longer the rocket company. The all-stock SpaceX deal with xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, in February 2026, worth $1.25 trillion at the time, was the largest private corporate merger ever recorded. Today, xAI has become a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, along with Grok (AI chatbot with 117 million monthly active users) and social media platform X, as well as Colossus, one of the largest AI training supercomputers in the world.

The merged company announced its plans to list on the Nasdaq at $135 per share with a value of $75 billion and a stock market debut of $1.75 trillion, the most expensive financial history IPO by far. In 2019, Saudi Aramco issued $25.6 billion, the previous record. SpaceX is almost three times the size of that.

Before you get too excited, let's take the time to understand the financials. In 2025, SpaceX's revenue was about $18.5 billion. The net loss from the xAI integration brought the company to a loss in the vicinity of $5bn; compared with the previous year's profit of approximately $8bn. The only segment that is profitable so far is Starlink, the satellite internet arm, which reported connectivity revenue of $3.26 billion and 10.3 million subscribers in Q1 2026, nearly double last year's number. At the time of the merger, the xAI division was spending $1 billion a month.

Morningstar's fair value estimate is closer to $780 billion, less than half of the IPO target. Their reasoning: You're spending $1.75 trillion today on milestones that haven't yet proven to be profitable. The bull case relies on the launch economics of Starship, scaling out Starlink, and monetization of xAI. Those are true potential upside catalysts. They also do not guarantee; they are only scenarios.

SpaceX also has 18,712 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, valued at around $1.29 billion based on its fair value as of March 31, 2026. The company has been steadily buying them up. It's a little tidbit to know if you're considering what you're really purchasing exposure to!
How Bybit's IPO Express actually works
The offering's name is IPO Express, and it's powered by xStocks — a tokenization infrastructure originally created by tokenization financing firm Backed Finance, which was bought by Payward, the parent of Kraken. Bybit was the second exchange to launch this week, with Kraken following suit with its own version on June 5 and at more than 110 regions, under the ticker SPCXx.

Mechanics are simple. Eligible Bybit users who subscribed with USDC were done with an indicative rate of $135 per share, a 5% underwriting fee, and a max of 50 subscription orders per user. Funds were committed until allocation. On June 11th and 12th, allocations were made according to the pro rata formula. Unused money was automatically returned.

The important point that should be noted and explained — and that is crucial to understanding what it is you are getting: xStocks tokens are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, which is a company based in Jersey, and are attached in the form of tracker certificates. They are not equity shares, but rather economic exposure to the underlying reference asset. No voting rights for its shareholders. No dividend rights. It's a price exposure, not a seat at the table.

The implications of this are more than just for SpaceX.
The SpaceX tokenization is a test case for a larger question: can crypto infrastructure realistically be a viable on-ramp to traditional equity markets? The demand signal is already loud: At the time of SpaceX's IPO announcement, it has been reported that there was about $150 billion of investor interest in the listing, compared to the $75 billion in investor interest the company was targeting.

In some parts of the Southeast Asian world and Latin America, as well as in parts of Eastern Europe, a tokenified IPO via an exchange they already use is something that wasn't possible before. No brokerage account. No geographic gatekeeping. Only USDC and previous Bybit login is required.

The bigger picture: tokenized real-world assets (TWA) have steadily progressed throughout 2025 and 2026. Money market funds hit $8 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM). The value of tokenized assets based on Ethereum hit $11.5 billion. The SpaceX offering is the most prominent and high-profile instance of the traditional equity markets making the jump to blockchain rails, so far.

The hazards, simply said.
Before taking this to be a simple task, there are a few things to keep in mind. The tokenised shares are tracker certificates, NOT direct equity shares. After the $1.5 billion hack by the Lazarus Group in February 2025, Bybit is still recovering, but counterparty risk is a very real threat on all centralized exchanges. The free float is minimal and about 3.75% of SpaceX's total equity will be listed, so there will be a lot of price volatility after the listing. Not only that, but the valuation itself is in question: You're paying $1.75 trillion for a company that is only profitable in one business segment — Starlink — and you're paying for xAI to be in the red, and you're paying for the xAI merger to be in the red, and you're paying for the xAI merger to be in the red.

But, because none of that means it's a bad investment. It implies that it is a complex one. The story, rockets, AI, Starlink, Elon Musk, is interesting. It's really a matter of basics. Both of these are true, and neither is false.

However, whether SpaceX stock rises or falls upon listing, what Bybit did this week is interesting. It has shown that a crypto exchange can serve as a foundation for IPOs for the largest public offering in the world. Whether or not this becomes a trend is determined by regulation, demand and whether or not the product actually provides what it promises. The first real data point will be on June 12.