How TradeXYZ, xStocks, and Alpaca break down the SpaceX IPO into three different strategies

Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher

SpaceX will be listed on Nasdaq today, raising approximately $75 billion with a valuation exceeding $1.8 trillion, and has already been significantly oversubscribed. This giant IPO, which combines rockets, Starlink, social platform X, and xAI, brings an old issue back to the forefront: the issuance price quota is almost entirely allocated to institutions, while retail investors can only chase high prices after the listing, and non-U.S. retail investors often do not even have the qualification to subscribe.

Surrounding this IPO, there are at least three mechanisms that allow retail investors to enter early or simultaneously, namely TradeXYZ, xStocks, and Alpaca, corresponding to synthetic perpetual contracts, tokenized equity, and real stocks from regulated brokers. All three companies bear the name SpaceX, but the rights they offer to investors are completely different. This article uses this IPO as a reference point to break down the structure, regulation, and risks of these three mechanisms one by one, and assess their practical significance for Asian retail investors.

The "First Day Gap" of the IPO is where retail investors are truly blocked

The scarcity of an IPO does not lie in the inability to buy stocks, but in the inability to buy "stocks at the issuance price." The issuance price quota is determined by the underwriting syndicate, prioritized for institutions and large clients, while retail investors have to wait until the listing to enter the secondary market, and popular new stocks often experience significant gaps on their first day of listing, with this price difference being the invisible bonus of institutional quotas.

A clear example is AI chipmaker Cerebras, which just listed on May 2026. Its issuance price was raised twice, ultimately set at $185 per share, selling 30 million shares and raising $5.55 billion, making it the largest tech IPO in the U.S. since Uber in 2019.

However, those who received the issuance price earned more than just the $185 price; the stock opened directly at $350, briefly surged to $385 (more than doubling from the issuance price), and closed on the first day at $311, an increase of about 68%. In other words, institutions that could obtain quotas at $185 and retail investors who could only buy in the secondary market at $350 were standing on completely different starting lines at the moment of listing.

This structure is even more evident in bull market years. According to data cited by Alpaca, there were 1,331 global IPOs in 2025, raising $177 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44%, with 216 companies listed in the U.S., raising $47.4 billion, and AI, crypto, space, and defense being the hottest themes.

After SpaceX, the market is also waiting for potential follow-up listings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. For crypto exchanges, this is a market that was previously completely inaccessible but may now be pried open with blockchain, leading to the simultaneous emergence of three distinctly different entry mechanisms.

The same SpaceX, divided into three completely different products

Products on the market bearing the name SpaceX actually belong to three different tracks, overlapping in name but differing in the rights they provide.

• The first is Pre-IPO perpetual contracts, represented by TradeXYZ, with a similar approach taken by Coinbase, creating a perpetual market for the expected listing price, where investors hold synthetic positions without any stock backing.

• The second is tokenized IPO subscriptions, represented by xStocks, adopted by Kraken and Bybit, allowing users to subscribe at the issuance price before the stock is listed and receive tokens backed 1:1 by real stocks after listing, gaining price exposure but not shareholder status.

• The third is real broker subscriptions, represented by Alpaca, allowing investors to obtain real stocks registered in their names at the issuance price through regulated brokers and underwriting channels.

These three representative platforms—TradeXYZ in the perpetual track, xStocks in the tokenized subscription track, and Alpaca providing real stock delivery—form a spectrum from "most synthetic" to "most real," breaking the same SpaceX into contracts, tokens, and stocks.

Exchanges are the "facade," mechanisms are the "tracks"

Before diving deeper, there is a level that needs clarification to avoid confusion: TradeXYZ, xStocks, and Alpaca are not three exchanges side by side, but three different levels of roles.

xStocks is a framework for issuing and settling tokens, Alpaca is the backend infrastructure for brokers, neither of which directly faces retail investors but allows exchanges or apps to connect, more like "tracks"; TradeXYZ is a perpetual contract product running on Hyperliquid, more like "a vehicle running on a certain track." The exchanges that truly face users, such as Kraken, Bybit, and Coinbase, are the "facade."

Once this is clarified, it becomes understandable why "the same exchange lists multiple mechanisms." The most typical example is Kraken, which uses xStocks to provide tokenized subscriptions for non-U.S. users, issuing SPCXx tokens; for U.S. users, since xStocks is not registered in the U.S., it switches to Alpaca via ClickIPO, connecting to its own traditional broker, Kraken Securities, allowing users to obtain real stocks. The same Kraken, the same SpaceX, corresponds to two completely different mechanisms due to regional differences.

Most other exchanges choose only one path: Coinbase, OKX, and Bitget do perpetuals, while Bybit does xStocks tokenized subscriptions. In other words, the facade can connect to several tracks simultaneously, and the same track can be shared by multiple facades.

TradeXYZ: Directly turning "expected stock price" into perpetual contracts

TradeXYZ is a permissionless perpetual contract platform under Unit, which is built on the tokenized layer of Hyperliquid. Its Pre-IPO perpetual contracts (IPOP) are cash-settled perpetual contracts, with the underlying being the expected public market stock price of a company, quoted per share price rather than market capitalization, and do not carry ownership, voting rights, or dividends. Simply put, it trades not stocks, but the market's collective expectation of a company's stock price after listing.

Its settlement mechanism: taking the first market Cerebras (code CBRS) as an example, Cerebras submitted its S-1 on April 17, aiming to list on Nasdaq in May. TradeXYZ set the external listing deadline for May 30, with a settlement period of 60 days until July 30. If the company lists within the deadline, the contract converts into a standard perpetual contract priced by external market feeds; if it does not list, it settles at the time-weighted average price during the contract's duration. The product is priced in USDC, runs on Hyperliquid, and trades 24 hours. Cerebras successfully listed on May 14, completing the full cycle from "expectation" to "actual price."

Similar products have formed a small market on Hyperliquid. TradeXYZ's XYZ100 (tokenized Nasdaq futures) ranks first in trading volume and open interest in the HIP-3 sector, with a combined 24-hour trading volume of about $26 million and open interest of about $9 million for NVDA and TSLA at the initial market launch.

The Pre-IPO perpetual market for SpaceX has also been launched, and Coinbase introduced SpaceX Pre-IPO perpetual contracts for qualified users outside the U.S. on June 3 through its international exchange licensed in Bermuda, also settled in USDC and trading 24 hours.

This path pushes the entry point to before the listing, requiring no underwriting quotas, no custody of any real stocks, providing the purest price exposure and the most freely liquid form. But the costs are equally clear. Investors hold derivative positions, with no underlying assets, and the price depends on market sentiment and funding rates, with perpetual contracts carrying leverage and forced liquidation risks. Essentially, it opens a betting market for a "non-existent public market price" before the company has even listed.

xStocks: Tokenized equity backed by real stocks, but you are not a shareholder

xStocks is owned by Kraken's parent company Payward, and the product is tokenized stocks. Each token is issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, backed 1:1 by real stocks and held in custody by a regulated entity, providing holders with economic exposure to the underlying but not shareholder status, with no voting rights or dividends.

Payward acquired the original issuer, the Swiss company Backed Finance, in December 2025. In terms of market share, xStocks accounts for about 80% of the tokenized stock market, with cumulative trading volume exceeding $2 billion.

For the IPO, Payward launched IPO Access on June 5, with SpaceX as the first target, code SPCXx. Users can submit non-binding subscription intentions before the listing and receive tokenized quotas at the issuance price (including a 5% price difference) on the day of listing. This process is closer to the traditional IPO's "subscription intention registration" rather than crypto listing: users first submit conditional subscriptions, funds are frozen, and quotas are then determined by the underwriting syndicate and ClickIPO, which may be fully, partially, or not at all allocated, with excess funds returned.

The key to this mechanism is the xStocks Alliance behind it, which is a multi-exchange network operated by Payward's B2B division, Payward Services. Bybit followed up on June 7, launching IPO Express through xStocks, allowing subscriptions in USDC with a minimum of 100 USDC, accumulating about 550 pre-registrations and approximately $9.1 million in subscription volume within hours of going live.

$9.1 million is still small compared to the $75 billion fundraising scale, indicating that this path currently resembles a retail channel that is still taking shape rather than a primary source of capital.

The layout of xStocks is not limited to the retail end. Payward partnered with Nasdaq in March 2026 to use xStocks as the settlement layer connecting the licensed equity market and blockchain, with Nasdaq's equity token framework expected to launch in the first half of 2027. xStocks adds a layer of real stock support compared to perpetual contracts, giving the exposure a tangible anchor. However, what investors ultimately receive is a token tracking the price, not legal ownership on the shareholder register.

Alpaca: The layer that truly completes the delivery

Alpaca is a registered broker in the U.S. that clears its own trades, with its main product being a broker infrastructure API that provides order placement, clearing, and custody for stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and crypto assets. According to Alpaca's official statement, its platform supports over 40 countries, hundreds of fintech companies and institutions, and more than 10 million brokerage accounts, with cumulative financing exceeding $320 million; its securities business is regulated by the SEC and FINRA. It does not directly compete for attention with retail investors but acts as an invisible backend, packaging trading, clearing, and custody into interfaces for other fintech companies to access.

Alpaca launched U.S. IPO subscription functionality through its Broker API, allowing broker partners that connect to its API to enable users to participate in U.S. stock IPO subscriptions without additional fees. Investors receive real stocks registered in their names, protected by regulatory safeguards.

Alpaca's role in this game best illustrates that the three are not purely competitors. Payward adopts a dual-track design: non-U.S. users go the tokenized route with xStocks, while U.S. users' IPO subscriptions are handled through Alpaca Securities and ClickIPO, connecting to Kraken's traditional broker, Kraken Securities, because xStocks is not registered under the Securities Act in the U.S. and is not open to U.S. persons.

In other words, the same SpaceX circulates overseas in the form of tokens or perpetual contracts, but in the U.S. market, it ultimately has to return to Alpaca's most traditional track, reverting to a regular stock for delivery. For Alpaca, regardless of how the outer packaging changes, the underlying real stock always requires a regulated entity to hold and clear, and it bets on this position.

Comparison of the three mechanisms: A spectrum from synthetic to real

What investors actually hold

The biggest difference lies in what investors hold.

• TradeXYZ provides perpetual contract positions, with no stocks backing them, representing purely synthetic price exposure.

• xStocks provides tokens, each backed 1:1 by a real stock, but holders only gain price exposure without legal ownership.

• Alpaca provides real stocks registered in the investor's name.

The same SpaceX corresponds to a contract, a token, and a stock on these three tracks after listing.

Entry timing and regional thresholds

All three can enter before or on the day of listing, but the scope of access varies greatly.

• TradeXYZ requires no permission and trades directly on-chain, with no regional whitelist.

• xStocks is open to over 110 countries, including the European Economic Area, but excludes the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.

• Alpaca follows the traditional broker market, and U.S. users must rely on this route to participate.

In terms of trading hours, both TradeXYZ and xStocks operate 24 hours, while Alpaca is limited to traditional trading hours.

Regulation, protection, and risks

The order of regulatory intensity is exactly the opposite of the first two items.

• Alpaca is regulated by the SEC and FINRA, with SIPC protection, and the main risk is that traditional IPO quotas do not guarantee full allocation and must endure price fluctuations after listing.

• xStocks' underlying stocks are held by regulated entities, but the tokens themselves are not registered under the Securities Act in the U.S., exposing investors to counterparty risks from the issuer and custodian, as well as the inability to exercise shareholder rights.

• TradeXYZ is a decentralized contract with no corresponding investor protections, compounded by leverage, funding rates, and forced liquidation risks.

The value of tokenized products ultimately depends on whether the underlying legal structure holds up, not just the price displayed on the interface. When these factors are layered together, a spectrum from synthetic to real emerges: the closer to crypto-native design, the fewer regional and time restrictions, the faster the entry, but the thinner the holdings and protections for investors; the closer to traditional brokers, the more complete the holdings and protections, but the more limited the flexibility.

When "owning a company" begins to have three versions

Looking at the three together, what is truly changing is not just "whether retail investors can enter," but that the act of "entering" itself is being deconstructed. In the past, an IPO was a moment in time, a one-time allocation determined by the underwriting syndicate of who could enter at the issuance price; now, TradeXYZ allows trading expectations before listing, xStocks enables continuous buying and selling on the weekend of the listing day, and Alpaca compresses subscriptions into a single API call, transforming the IPO from an event into a continuously tradable exposure curve with varying rights.

This also continues the main thread of the past year where crypto and Wall Street have been moving towards each other. Traditional finance has gradually moved advantages such as trading time, settlement speed, and fractional share subscriptions onto the chain, while crypto platforms have turned back to fill in the custody, compliance, and underwriting relationships that were previously deliberately avoided, and Kraken's parallel approach with xStocks and Alpaca is the most concrete reflection of this convergence.

In the short term, it is unlikely that only one winner will emerge among these three mechanisms; rather, each is likely to occupy a segment of the spectrum. For those seeking extreme flexibility and leverage, perpetual contracts are the way to go; for those wanting exposure at the issuance price without caring about ownership, tokens are the choice; for those wanting real equity and protection, returning to brokers is essential. The listing of SpaceX on June 12 will be the first test of these three mechanisms competing on the same large target, and it is worth our continued observation.