Kraken debuts SpaceX IPO tokens in challenge to Wall Street

Kraken has opened access to the upcoming SpaceX IPO through tokenized shares across more than 110 markets, bringing a traditionally exclusive Wall Street process to retail investors.

According to an announcement from Kraken, SpaceX will become the first company offered through its new xStocks IPO Access program, a service that lets eligible retail investors apply for IPO allocations using tokenized equity instruments rather than traditional brokerage channels.

Users must hold a verified Kraken account through the exchange’s mobile application and submit an IPO access request before shares become available.

Kraken said the service is currently accessible across the European Economic Area and more than 110 international markets, while users in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom remain excluded because of regulatory restrictions.

Investors who receive allocations will be issued SPCXx, a tokenized representation of SpaceX equity backed one-for-one by underlying shares. According to Kraken, those tokens will be tradable around the clock on Kraken and other platforms participating in the xStocks network.

The launch places Kraken in direct competition with a long-standing Wall Street practice in which IPO allocations are typically reserved for institutional investors and wealthy clients.

Earlier this week, Kraken-affiliated Payward Services said customers of Kraken and selected xStocks Alliance members would be able to register interest in upcoming U.S.-listed IPOs before companies begin trading publicly.

According to Payward Services, successful applicants will receive tokenized shares at the IPO offering price on listing day, with the underlying stock held by a regulated custodian. The company said the structure is intended to provide retail investors with access that has historically been difficult to obtain through conventional public offering processes.

SpaceX listing attracts strong demand

Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is expected to begin trading publicly on June 12 and is seeking to raise approximately $75 billion at a valuation exceeding $1.8 trillion. According to Bloomberg, investor demand has already surpassed the number of shares available.

If completed at that scale, Bloomberg said the transaction would become the largest IPO on record, surpassing the $29.4 billion listing completed by Saudi Aramco in 2019.

Much of the company’s valuation has been linked to the growth of Starlink, its satellite internet business. At the same time, SpaceX continues to invest heavily in launch services, spacecraft development, and other capital-intensive operations that could influence how public market investors assess the company after trading begins.

AI infrastructure contracts add another growth driver

Beyond its aerospace operations, SpaceX has expanded into AI infrastructure services through large compute agreements with technology companies.

According to a recent regulatory filing, Google has agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million per month from October 2026 through June 2029 for access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, memory, and related equipment.

Google said the arrangement will help meet stronger-than-expected demand for its Gemini Enterprise products while additional internal capacity is developed.

Shortly before that agreement, SpaceX disclosed a separate deal with Anthropic. Under that contract, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month through 2029 for compute capacity from the Colossus 1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee.

The SpaceX offering also arrives as Kraken continues expanding beyond cryptocurrency trading. In late 2025, the exchange acquired xStocks operator Backed Finance and later announced plans to introduce regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures in the United States using infrastructure obtained through its acquisition of Bitnomial.