Crypto traders chased $1 billion in SpaceX shares and tokenization fell short

Crypto traders poured money into products tied to Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite business SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), but blockchain markets still could not give them the same thing Ron Baron bought: $1 billion worth of SPCX. The public debut created a funny split, as traditional investors received shares while crypto users received price exposure through perpetual futures, which were supposed to track the listing closely, yet they sadly did not turn token holders into owners of SPCX. At the time of its launch, the IPO had a value of about $2 trillion, closing higher than $2.

1 trillion after its initial trading period. Close to 500 million shares were traded. SpaceX was listed at $150 and went up to as high as $176.

52, ending up at $160.95. Banks were negotiating the terms of the deal amid speculations that the value was close to $175.

Hyperliquid and Binance let traders price SpaceX before Wall Street opened However, Hyperliquid and Binance derivatives, which are known as perps, remain open indefinitely. They are popular among foreign traders, but they are finding their way into the regulated market of the United States as well. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has just authorized the listing of bitcoin perps on prediction platform Kalshi.

Traders on the Hyperliquid exchange were buying and selling SpaceX futures worth close to $180 during opening bell. Right before the stock began trading at $150, those futures declined to about $153. The difference between them was too small to ignore – crypto traders managed to define a relevant price range.

Hyperliquid saw more than 7 million perp trades on Friday related to SpaceX, valued at over $1.2 billion. This was derivative trading rather than ownership, meaning the traders profited or lost depending on the price but did not gain any voting rights or claims on the firm.

It came amid tough competition from the exchange companies as well. Shares of CME Group (CME), Cboe Global Markets (CBOE), and Nasdaq (NDAQ) fell la