Crypto Platforms Cancel SpaceX IPO Access After xStocks Fails to Deliver Shares

TLDR

• Bybit, Binance, Bitget, and MEXC canceled tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns on Friday
• SpaceX raised $75 billion in its Nasdaq IPO, opening at $150 and closing at $161.11
• Kraken-owned xStocks failed to deliver underlying shares due to overwhelming demand
• Binance’s campaign alone had attracted over $557 million in USDC deposits
• The failure was blamed on share access, not the tokenization technology itself

SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq on Friday, raising $75 billion in one of the most anticipated IPOs in years. Shares opened at $150, up from the $135 IPO price, and closed the day at $161.11, putting the company’s valuation above $2 trillion.

For many crypto users, Friday was supposed to be a breakthrough moment. Several major platforms had promised tokenized access to SpaceX shares before the listing.

It didn’t work out.

Bybit, Binance, Bitget Wallet, and MEXC all canceled their SpaceX tokenized IPO campaigns. All four platforms told users they would receive full refunds.

The common thread was xStocks, a tokenized equities business owned by Kraken. Each of the platforms had relied on xStocks to supply the underlying shares.

Binance’s campaign had gathered over $557 million in USDC deposits from customers. The platform said it could not proceed due to “circumstances outside of our control.”

Why the Shares Ran Out

The SpaceX IPO was oversubscribed by more than four times. SpaceX had originally planned to set aside 30% of the offering for retail investors, but that share was cut to the low-20% range before pricing as demand surged.

xStocks and its distribution partners collected more than $1 billion in customer orders. When underwriters finalized allocations, most of those requests went unfilled.

Customers of Kraken and xStocks themselves received only a fraction of what they had requested. Even traditional retail brokerages saw investors receive less than they ordered, according to data from Access IPOs.

A Technology Win, a Supply Failure

Industry participants were quick to point out that the failure was not a technology problem. The blockchain infrastructure worked as intended. The problem was simply getting access to real shares in a heavily oversubscribed offering.

Dinari, a tokenization platform that did not offer pre-IPO access, put it plainly. If the underlying stock cannot be sourced and held within the proper regulatory framework, there is no asset to tokenize.

Despite the failed campaigns, tokenized SpaceX shares did launch after the IPO. About $24 million worth of tokenized SpaceX stock was circulating onchain by Friday. Ondo Finance and Dinari also launched their own tokenized SpaceX products following the listing.

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