SpaceX options trading made history on Tuesday with over 500,000 contracts traded in the first hour, making it the most heavily traded company ever on its debut options day, according to Trade Alert data. By 11:40 a.m. ET, 869,000 options contracts had changed hands, with calls leading puts 1.5-to-1, as reported by The Economic Times. The bullish options action helped lift the stock price significantly, with SpaceX shares climbing more than 14% on Tuesday, pushing its valuation past Amazon.com and briefly above Microsoft to rank among the top-five most valuable companies within days of its blockbuster debut. As Brent Kochuba, founder of options analytic service SpotGamma, noted, "It's really kind of going nuts" with options demand skewed toward bullish calls. Seth Hickle, chief investment officer at Mindset Wealth Management, said "Early option volume indicates another SpaceX success."
SpaceX's initial public offering on Nasdaq delivered exceptional results, with the company raising $75 billion in what has been described as the biggest initial public offering ever. As reported by The Times of India, shares opened at $150 after being priced at $135, before surging further during early trading. The stock surged as high as $176.52 during the session before ending the day at $160.95, representing a gain of nearly 19% from the offer price. The strong retail participation drove volumes past 500 million shares on the first day, making it one of the most heavily traded debuts in market history. The company's market capitalization reached approximately $2.2 trillion following the successful listing, with the stock now making SpaceX the sixth-largest U.S. company by market value at more than $2 trillion. According to The Economic Times, the stock surged more than 25% on its Nasdaq debut, briefly lifting the company's valuation above $2 trillion and making it one of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States.
According to Michael Saylor, the SpaceX IPO marks a significant milestone for corporate Bitcoin adoption, with 25% of the so-called 'Mag 8' companies now holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. As reported by BitcoinTreasuries, SpaceX currently holds 18,712 BTC, while Tesla owns 11,509 BTC, giving the two Musk-linked companies a combined 30,221 BTC position. This represents a substantial increase in Bitcoin treasury holdings among major technology firms, with public companies collectively holding approximately 1.26 million BTC worth about $80.56 billion across 199 firms. The trend has accelerated in recent months, with aggregate corporate holdings increasing about 3% over the past 30 days.
The heavy options trading volume created significant market dynamics, with options dealers experiencing gamma squeezes as they bought increasing amounts of SpaceX shares to hedge their positions. As Brent Kochuba from SpotGamma explained, "If you're a market maker, you can't hedge SpaceX with anything else other than SpaceX." The surge of options volume caused the underlying stock price to swing as dealers bought and sold shares to square their own risk. Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna, noted that "Investors continue to chase upside in high-beta AI and space-linked winners." Rocky Fishman, founder of Asym 500, said "The stock is already on track to develop one of the deeper derivatives ecosystems of the single stock market." He explained that "High equity volume, an overlapping investor base with option-heavy Tesla, and hedging demand are all reasons to expect very high SpaceX option volumes from the start."
The SpaceX IPO attracted significant institutional participation, with BlackRock placing an order for at least $5 billion in shares. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are co-leading the underwriting at fees reportedly negotiated below 0.75%, which would still produce one of the largest paydays in banking history, given the deal size. Ryan was direct about what he feels is coming next: "This deal has to perform well. Everyone's watching that. And then if it does, the rest of the pipeline I think starts to move forward." The most important point for investors may be Ryan's view on downstream revenue, stating that "the second-order impact is actually going to be much bigger for retail brokers and even the investment banks than what this actual deal is for the P&L on day one." Trading commissions, securities lending, options activity, and derivative products built around a newly public mega-cap can persist for years and drive meaningful revenue for brokerages and banks.
According to Moneycontrol, the next two months will bring a jam-packed calendar for SpaceX that may bring significant volatility. The company plans to allow a large portion of its shares to become eligible for resale before the usual six-month restriction period post-IPO, under a staged system linked to the company's performance. Some brokers are also imposing holding periods for shares acquired on Friday, with Longbow Asset Management CEO Jake Dollarhide noting "a 31-day minimum holding period" for some clients. The IPO includes a greenshoe option with Morgan Stanley having the option to purchase an additional 15% of stock at the IPO price of $135 for up to 30 days. SpaceX is also due to be added this month to indexes such as the Nasdaq 100 and some MSCI and Russell indexes, with some funds required to buy once that happens. The company is expected to report earnings in the next few months, which will likely renew discussion of whether a company with a $4.94 billion loss last year on $18.7 billion of revenue can justify a $2 trillion valuation.
