A Tesla Cybertruck drives past SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne, California, US, on Monday, April 13, 2026.
Ethan Swope | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SpaceX’s anticipated initial public offering is generating strong early interest, with perpetual futures contracts on crypto platforms trading around $162, approximately 20% above the IPO price of $135 per share. The contracts, which allow leveraged speculation without owning the underlying stock, peaked above $220 shortly after launch in May.
The rocket company is reportedly four times oversubscribed, indicating robust demand relative to available shares. If SpaceX prices as expected, its estimated $1.77 trillion valuation would make it the seventh-largest publicly traded company in the U.S., surpassing Tesla’s current market cap of about $1.6 trillion.
Despite the strong showing in crypto markets, Eric Chen, co-founder and CEO of Injective Labs, noted that demand may not reflect broader investor enthusiasm. “Perpetuals on Hyperliquid suggest there’s interest in the SpaceX IPO, but it’s far from euphoric,” Chen said. “These markets are dominated by very active, risk-toward traders, and they aren’t pricing in a massive premium versus other pre-IPO names. It’s a useful signal, but not a guarantee of how the broader market will react once SpaceX actually lists.”
Adding to concerns about sustained demand, SpaceX perpetual futures have declined alongside broader crypto market weakness, with Bitcoin down 20% and ether down 23% since the perp launch on May 18. The risk is that even optimistic participants aren’t excessively bullish, raising questions about the durability of demand once real liquidity and price discovery begin.
Perpetual futures, often called “perps,” are derivatives that enable price speculation without expiration dates and using leverage, without requiring ownership of the underlying asset. They represent more than 70% of trading volume on centralized global crypto exchanges, according to CoinGecko.