SpaceX Pre-IPO Goes Live on Bybit via IPO Express in Partnership With xStocks and Kraken
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Key Takeaways
Bybit launched IPO Express on June 7, making SpaceX its first tokenized IPO offering via xStocks.
The tokens are backed by real equity held in custody but carry no voting or dividend rights.
Subscriptions run June 7–11, with trading starting June 12. US, UK, Canadian, and Australian users are excluded, while a recent 45% crash in a rival SpaceX perpetual highlights infrastructure risks.
For most retail investors, getting into a high-profile IPO at the offering price has historically required the right broker, the right account size, and the right connections.
Bybit is now attempting to change that equation with a product that could either democratize pre-IPO access or introduce a new category of retail risk, depending on how the next few weeks unfold.
Working exclusively with @xStocksFi and @krakenfx present you the most compliant method to participate in SpaceX pre IPO. 1=1 stock backed, compliant and secure. pic.twitter.com/dxzkpyFeGt
Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, launched IPO Express on June 7, 2026, becoming one of the first centralized crypto exchanges globally to offer tokenized access to IPOs at the offering price.
The service is powered by Payward Services’ xStocks tokenization infrastructure and uses SpaceX as its inaugural offering.
What Xstocks and IPO Express Actually Are
IPO Express uses an indicative price of 135 USDC per unit plus a 5% underwriting fee, with a minimum subscription of 100 USDC and a cap of 50 subscription orders per user. Each xStocks token is backed 1:1 by real equity held in a regulated broker-dealer’s custody, meaning that for every tokenized share trading on Bybit, there is a corresponding real SpaceX share in custody.
xStocks tokens are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, a Jersey-based entity, and structured as tracker certificates that provide economic exposure to the underlying reference asset rather than direct equity ownership.
Token holders have no shareholder voting rights or dividend rights. The tokens are blockchain agnostic and interoperable across Ethereum, Solana, and TON.
Bybit’s IPO Express is not launching in isolation. Kraken, whose parent company Payward Services operates the xStocks infrastructure, launched its own tokenized SpaceX access on June 5 under the ticker SPCXx, available to verified users in more than 110 regions.
The xStocks network has processed more than $25 billion in total transaction volume since launch across 50-plus integrated platforms.
How To Invest in SpaceX Tokenized Shares via Bybit IPO Express
Getting in is straightforward but time-sensitive. The subscription window closes June 11, and the five-step process runs entirely through your existing Bybit account.
Step 1: Register For the Offering
Log in to your Bybit account and navigate to the IPO Express page. Select the SpaceX offering, review the pricing details, indicative price of 135 USDC plus a 5% underwriting fee, timeline, and jurisdiction eligibility before confirming your registration.
Step 2: Submit Your Subscription
During the subscription window, enter the amount you want to commit, starting at 100 USDC and capped at 50 subscription orders per user. Payment is made in USDC rather than fiat currency.
Step 3: Fund Lockup
Once submitted, your committed funds are locked for the duration of the subscription period and cannot be withdrawn until allocations are finalized. Subscription orders cannot be canceled once confirmed, so size your commitment accordingly.
Step 4: Allocation Calculation
After the subscription window closes on June 11, Bybit calculates allocations on a pro-rata basis relative to total subscription demand across all participants. Given the scale of global interest in the SpaceX IPO, individual allocations are likely to be meaningfully smaller than the amount committed.
Step 5: Distribution and Trading
Allocated xStocks tokens are credited directly to your Funding Account on June 11 to 12. Any uncommitted funds are automatically refunded. Once distribution is complete, tokenized SpaceX shares begin trading on Bybit Spot on June 12, coinciding with the anticipated Nasdaq listing, and can be traded freely thereafter.
To be eligible, users must have completed Level 1 identity verification and must be operating from a main account. Subaccounts are not eligible. Users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are excluded entirely due to regulatory restrictions.
Risks Every Buyer Should Understand
The product carries several risk layers that are easy to miss in the excitement around the SpaceX name.
First, tracker certificates are not equity. Bybit’s own documentation states that it can set platform-wide limits on certain collateral assets. These restrictions are determined by the asset’s overall usage across the exchange.
Second, jurisdictional exclusions are significant. Users in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are excluded from participating due to regulatory restrictions, eliminating the largest retail investor bases from the product entirely.
Third, pre-IPO tokenized infrastructure has already demonstrated fragility this week. A bug involving offchain oracle data caused a competing pre-IPO SpaceX perpetual contract on Hyperliquid to crash 45% within a 30-minute window, with the platform Ventuals later saying it would compensate affected traders. That incident is a live stress test of what happens when pre-IPO pricing infrastructure encounters real-world failure conditions.
Fourth, oversubscription is near-certain. Given the scale of global demand for SpaceX exposure, individual users should expect to receive allocations that are meaningfully smaller than requested under the pro rata model.
Musk’s Trillionaire Odds Hit All-Time High on Kalshi
The prediction market has already rendered its verdict. Kalshi traders are currently pricing a 97% probability that Elon Musk will become the world’s first trillionaire, an all-time high for the contract, as the SpaceX IPO approaches its June 12 Nasdaq debut.
Odds Elon Musk becomes the world’s first trillionaire hit an ATH. | Source: @Kalshi
The market is essentially treating the outcome as a near-certainty, with only a catastrophic last-minute collapse in SpaceX’s valuation standing between Musk and a milestone that has never existed in the history of human commerce.
For context, a trillion dollars spent at $1 million per hour would take more than a century to exhaust. Kalshi’s 97% reading suggests the market expects that number to arrive within days.
Why SpaceX’s Tokenized IPO Is a Major Test for Crypto Markets
SpaceX is seeking a $1.75 trillion market cap through a $75 billion capital raise, which would make it potentially the largest IPO ever recorded. The $9.1 million in early Bybit commitments is a strong signal of retail demand but is modest relative to that scale.
The broader race now splits between tokenized equity access, where Bybit and Kraken sit, and synthetic perpetual futures, where Coinbase International, Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Trade.xyz are operating. SpaceX’s pre-IPO perpetual open interest across all venues has already reached $280 million.
What Bybit’s IPO Express represents is less about SpaceX specifically and more about whether crypto infrastructure can reliably serve as a parallel channel to traditional IPO distribution. June 12 will be the first real test of that thesis.
Dr. Guneet Kaur is a senior editor at CCN.com and a Science Fellow at Exponential Science. She is a fintech and blockchain expert with extensive experience in digital finance education, blockchain ecosystems, and cryptocurrency markets. She has worked with global media such as Cointelegraph, as well as education and blockchain platforms, to design and lead strategic content and learning initiatives. As an educator and assessor for top-tier executive programs, she bridges real-world fintech trends with academic insight.
Dr. Kaur is also a published researcher and peer reviewer across fintech and data science journals, including Financial Innovation Journal and International Journal of Big Data Intelligence and Applications. Her work spans data-driven analysis, Web3 innovation, and technical content development. With a strong foundation in both industry and academia, she translates complex financial technologies into practical applications, empowering learners, professionals, and institutions across the rapidly evolving digital finance landscape.
