Internet Capital Markets: SpaceX Volume on Solana Hits $37M on Day One

The long-awaited public debut of SpaceX has already become one of the most significant financial events of the decade. Following its IPO on Friday, June 12, the company began trading on Nasdaq at $150 per share. The listing raised a record $75 billion, valued SpaceX at roughly $1.8 trillion, and helped push Elon Musk's estimated net worth above $1 trillion for the first time.

Yet while traditional markets focused on the historic IPO itself, a parallel market emerged on Solana. Within hours of the Nasdaq debut, multiple tokenized versions of SpaceX stock began trading onchain. Backpack and Sunrise launched the redeemable $SPCX token, while xStocks introduced $SPCXx, and Ondo launched $SPCXon. Together, the assets offered Solana users immediate exposure to SpaceX shares through tokenized representations trading around the clock.

Solana Becomes a Live Testing Ground for Tokenized Equities

The launch marked one of the most ambitious attempts yet to bring public equities onto blockchain infrastructure. Backpack's $SPCX debuted as a tokenized representation of SpaceX stock that users can trade 24/7 through Solana venues. The token offers 1:1 backing by underlying shares, supports self-custody, allows transfers to brokerage accounts via redemption mechanisms, and includes dividend support.

At the same time, competing issuers entered the market with their own versions. xStocks launched $SPCXx, while Ondo introduced $SPCXon. The simultaneous launches created multiple venues for market participants to express views on the value of newly public SpaceX shares.

Centralized Exchange IPO Campaigns Stumble

The contrast between centralized and decentralized launches became apparent almost immediately. Bybit announced that participants in its SpaceX IPO subscription program would receive no allocations after xStocks failed to deliver the underlying assets required for distribution.

Binance also canceled its $SPCXx IPO campaign, citing circumstances outside its control. The company announced full refunds for participating users and pledged to distribute $1 million worth of $SPCXB tokens to participants.

While both exchanges moved to compensate users, neither campaign ultimately delivered the expected IPO allocations. Meanwhile, tokenized SpaceX assets were already trading on Solana.

The First Hours of Spot Trading Generated Millions in Volume

The first two hours of trading produced meaningful activity across Solana's tokenized SpaceX markets. According to market data captured roughly two hours after trading began, $SPCX recorded approximately $5.78 million in volume, while $SPCXx generated roughly $1.79 million in trading activity, and $SPCXon recorded approximately $10,100 in volume.

Combined, the three markets generated roughly $7.58 million in spot trading volume during their first two hours of operation. Volume has continued to grow since launch. Backpack’s $SPCX alone generated $37 million in volume in its first 7 hours of trading.

Price Discovery Reveals Differences Between Products

Not all products have behaved the same way. For months, PreStocks gave Solana DeFi users the opportunity to gain exposure through $SPACEX, its synthetic private equity instrument. However, following the IPO, the asset quickly traded at a discount of roughly 41% relative to SpaceX’s stock price.

PreStocks holders face a 180-day lockup period before they can convert their tokens into underlying shares. As a result, investors must either wait six months for redemption rights or sell into a relatively illiquid secondary market. The discount reflects the cost of that waiting period and the restrictions attached to the asset.

The SpaceX IPO also sparked discussion around the role of spot markets relative to perpetual futures. Trade.xyz's $SPCX perpetual futures market on Hyperliquid surpassed $1 billion in 24-hour trading volume, making it the third-largest by daily volume on the platform on Friday.

Despite those headline figures, some industry participants argue that spot markets remain a more direct measure of genuine demand. Speaking on SolanaFloor's Solana Weekly News livestream, Wormhole Labs CEO and Sunrise builder Saeed Badreg emphasized that spot trading represents actual capital rather than leveraged exposure.

According to Badreg, perpetual futures can generate significantly higher trading volume because traders employ leverage, allowing the same capital base to produce substantially more turnover. He argued that spot markets provide a clearer picture of investor conviction because participants commit fully funded capital rather than leveraged positions.

Badreg also noted that spot markets can foster stronger long-term user engagement because traders face lower liquidation risk and less leverage-driven volatility. "The gap to me isn't so wide," Badreg said while comparing onchain spot and perpetual markets. He added that spot markets remain important because they attract users seeking exposure without the risks associated with leverage.

Competition Becomes Part of the Story

The launch also prompted commentary from industry leaders. Vibhu Norby, Chief Product Officer at the Solana Foundation, argued that Solana reached the market ahead of centralized exchanges and handled demand without experiencing the outages that have affected some major trading platforms during high-profile events.

Vibhu pointed to the presence of multiple issuers as evidence that competition can create better outcomes for users. Rather than relying on a single provider, market participants gained access to several competing tokenized products, each competing for liquidity and market share. "Some made it, and some didn't, but users got choices," Norby wrote. "That's competition."

Tokenized equities are growing in popularity as more and more people embrace a new way to engage the world’s markets. The first day of SpaceX's trading offered an early glimpse of what future capital markets could look like as public equities and blockchain infrastructure converge.

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