SpaceX IPO shines a light on Wall Street’s blockchain challenger
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- SpaceX's $2 trillion IPO closed at $160.95 after hitting $176.52 on its debut session, with roughly 500 million shares traded and a Day-1 market cap above $2.1 trillion.
- Hyperliquid processed more than 7 million SpaceX perpetual futures contracts on IPO day for over $1.2 billion in volume, pricing the stock between $153 and $180 before the first trade printed at $150.
- The CFTC recently approved Kalshi to trade bitcoin perps, and earlier this month shares of CME, Cboe, and Nasdaq all slid when Kalshi announced it would offer perpetual futures under CFTC supervision.
- Hyperliquid's HYPE token is up over 150% this year per CoinMarketCap, even as Bitcoin has underperformed stocks for over 18 months and digital asset Treasury companies like Strategy have gotten pummeled.
- David Schamis of Atlas Merchant Capital called perps "the best way to bring real-world assets on-chain," arguing that "the crypto rails built around [Bitcoin] are what's really going to endure for many years."
- Jared Dillian called the bankers' pricing "perfect" — "not too high, not too low" — noting the unprecedented deal went off "without a hitch."
Why it matters: The SpaceX debut gave crypto perp exchanges their highest-profile validation: Hyperliquid accurately priced the stock before the bell on $1.2 billion in volume, putting direct competitive pressure on CME, Cboe, and Nasdaq as event contracts and perpetual futures gain regulatory legitimacy via Kalshi's CFTC approval.
