SpaceX Surpasses Coinbase in Bitcoin Holdings Amid IPO Excitement
Bitcoin has faced challenges in regaining its momentum following a decline from $126,000 per bitcoin in October of the previous year. In contrast, a lesser-known competitor in the bitcoin space has remarkably surged by 1,000% and is being considered as a potential successor to bitcoin. The bitcoin price experienced a notable decline, reaching lows of $60,000 per bitcoin in February, before recovering to approximately $80,000. However, there are apprehensions that a further decline in bitcoin prices may be on the horizon. As traders brace for the forthcoming announcement from Michael Saylor’s bitcoin acquisition firm regarding a substantial bitcoin initiative, Elon Musk has revealed that his aerospace venture, SpaceX, holds a significantly larger quantity of bitcoin than earlier assessments suggested. SpaceX has officially confirmed its intentions to enter the public market by submitting an S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This move, which combines xAI and the X platform formerly known as Twitter, sets the stage for an initial public offering potentially as soon as next month.
The filing disclosed that SpaceX possesses slightly more than 18,700 bitcoin, valued at approximately $1.3 billion, with an acquisition cost exceeding $660 million, translating to around $35,000 per bitcoin. The current valuation of bitcoin would position them at $1.4 billion. The company’s bitcoin holdings surpass twice the nearly 8,300 bitcoin that blockchain analysts with Arkham had previously linked to SpaceX. An 18,700 bitcoin stash would place SpaceX as the seventh-largest bitcoin holder, exceeding exchange Coinbase, which holds just under 16,500 bitcoin, according to reports. Musk’s Tesla still holds around 10,000 bitcoin, which constitutes a segment of its $1.5 billion purchase in 2021, while the bulk was sold off in 2022. Although Musk has stepped back from actively participating in bitcoin and cryptocurrency dialogues in recent years, he maintains a robust critique of the U.S. dollar, describing it as “hopeless” and claiming that energy represents “the true currency”—a remark that some view as an implicit endorsement of bitcoin.
In October, Musk articulated on X that “bitcoin is based on energy: you can issue fake fiat currency, and every government in history has done so, but it is impossible to fake energy,” and agreed that the “global arms race” toward artificial intelligence is the underlying factor for the recent price surges in gold, silver, and bitcoin. Bitcoin, secured by a network of miners utilising powerful computers to validate transactions in exchange for newly issued bitcoin, consumes as much electricity annually as certain small nations. The energy demands are rising concurrently with its price as an increasing number of miners engage in the network. Musk’s support for bitcoin and cryptocurrency has waned since its zenith during the Covid era; nonetheless, he continues to endorse bitcoin, as well as his favoured cryptocurrency, dogecoin. However, the SpaceX filing made no mention of the meme-based dogecoin that Musk has championed or ethereum, both identified by Musk as cryptocurrencies he has personally held. SpaceX appears to be aiming for a valuation potentially reaching $2 trillion, with intentions to secure around $75 billion in funding. This would represent the largest IPO to date and may indicate forthcoming public listing intentions from artificial intelligence competitors OpenAI and Anthropic.
The filing asserted that the company is positioned to access the “largest actionable total addressable market in human history,” with its quantifiable TAM estimated at $28.5 trillion. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $4.7 billion, accompanied by a net loss of $4.3 billion. This underscores Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet division, as the key driver of profit and growth within the organization. Meanwhile, bitcoin and crypto exchange Binance has introduced perpetual futures that allow users to trade on the anticipated valuations of private companies before their shares become publicly available, with SpaceX being the first contract to launch. Pre-IPO perpetual futures exemplify Binance’s strategy to enhance market accessibility by integrating crypto-native infrastructure with major financial events. “As interest in public listings continues to grow, we’re giving users a more flexible way to engage with anticipated IPOs earlier,” Shunyet Jan said.
