Bybit has launched a new perpetual trading product tied to SpaceX ahead of the aerospace company’s expected public listing in June.

According to the exchange, the newly listed SPCXUSDT perpetual contract gives traders exposure to SpaceX with leverage of up to 10x. The contract is already live on the platform and is settled in USDT, allowing users to trade continuously without an expiry date or rollover requirement.

The launch arrives as SpaceX moves closer to what several market reports describe as one of the largest stock market debuts ever attempted. Regulatory filings reviewed ahead of the planned Nasdaq listing show the company is seeking a valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion while targeting a capital raise of roughly $75 billion.

If completed at that level, the offering would exceed the record set by Saudi Aramco during its 2019 IPO, which raised approximately $29.4 billion.

Why is SpaceX attracting so much market attention?

Fresh filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have also revealed that SpaceX currently holds 18,712 Bitcoin on its balance sheet. The figure was disclosed in the company’s S-1 registration filing and exceeded earlier blockchain-tracking estimates that had placed the company’s holdings closer to 8,285 BTC.

The filing further showed that SpaceX now holds more Bitcoin than Tesla, which currently reports 11,509 BTC according to BitcoinTreasuries data. Both firms are linked to Elon Musk, who has publicly supported Bitcoin during previous market cycles.

Beyond its cryptocurrency holdings, SpaceX continues to expand its commercial operations. Company disclosures stated that Starlink, its satellite internet unit, reached more than 8 million active subscribers worldwide and generated about $7.7 billion in revenue during 2024.

Recently, the company also acquired xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture. The deal combined SpaceX’s satellite and launch businesses with AI infrastructure and connectivity operations under a single corporate structure.

How does Bybit’s SpaceX contract work?

Bybit stated that the SPCXUSDT perpetual contract is based on SPCX and references an estimated share count of about 11.87 billion shares. Unlike traditional equity trading, the product remains available around the clock, including weekends and holidays.

Exchange documentation noted that traders can maintain positions indefinitely because the contract carries no fixed settlement date. Alongside leveraged access, Bybit said the platform includes professional charting tools, integrated custody systems, and insurance protections for users trading the contract.

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s SEC filing described the company’s total addressable market across space transport, internet connectivity, and artificial intelligence as roughly $28.5 trillion. The filing stated that the company sees opportunities across what it called the largest actionable market in “human history.”

Although the filing confirmed the company’s Bitcoin holdings, SpaceX did not disclose whether it plans to increase, reduce, or maintain its cryptocurrency exposure after going public. For now, investors appear focused on how the IPO, Bitcoin holdings, Starlink growth, and AI expansion could shape trading activity surrounding the company in the months ahead.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), under the sole leadership of Republican Michael Selig, announced a memorandum of understanding with the National Hockey League to “protect the integrity of professional hockey and maintain fair and transparent prediction markets.”

In a Thursday announcement, Selig said the move was intended to protect prediction market users from “insider trading, fraud, and other abuse” as the CFTC continues to maintain what it calls its “exclusive jurisdiction” over platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

The agency signed a similar agreement with Major League Baseball in March, at the same time the league announced Polymarket would be its Official Prediction Market Exchange.

According to the CFTC, the NHL agreement would allow the two entities to “share information and coordinate to protect the integrity of both professional hockey and related event contracts” on platforms. The NHL’s 2026-27 season is scheduled to begin in September, but as of Thursday, Kalshi and Polymarket listed event contracts for the Stanley Cup playoffs, which began in April.

Source: CFTC

Under Selig, who remains the CFTC chair and the agency’s sole commissioner, the financial regulator has repeatedly claimed that it alone has the right to oversee and regulate prediction markets. At the chair’s direction, the CFTC has filed legal actions against state authorities in Ohio, Connecticut, Illinois and New York over prediction markets, and recently in Minnesota over what it called a US state’s “first outright ban” of the platforms.

Related: House committee leaders urge Trump to nominate CFTC members, citing CLARITY Act

The CFTC’s leadership is expected to consist of a bipartisan panel of five commissioners, but Selig has been serving as the only member since December. Despite urging from lawmakers, US President Donald Trump had not publicly announced any nominations to fill the seats as of Thursday.

Polymarket filed to ‘list combinatorial outcome contracts’

On Wednesday, the prediction markets company filed a product self-certification letter to CFTC Secretary Christopher Kirkpatrick. According to the company, this would allow Polymarket to combine two or more underlying event contracts on the platform.

Magazine: 5 tech predictions the mainstream media got horribly wrong

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Binance launched perpetual futures contracts tied to the expected valuations of private companies ahead of their public listings, starting with a SpaceX-linked product settled in Tether’s USDt (USDT).

Binance said pre-IPO perpetual contracts are expected to reflect publicly available IPO pricing indicators, including announced valuation ranges and final offering prices, before a company begins trading publicly. After a listing, the contracts would transition to tracking live market prices.

The first contract, SPCXUSDT Pre-IPO Perpetual, is tied to SpaceX’s expected public market valuation, with additional pre-IPO perpetual contracts to follow over time.

Source: Binance

The products do not represent ownership of the underlying shares and instead allow traders to speculate on expected valuations before and after a company’s public debut.

According to Binance, contracts may later transition into a more standard perpetual futures structure once a stable reference price can be derived from the publicly traded shares. Contracts tied to IPOs that are delayed or canceled may also be delisted and settled under a separate process outlined by the exchange.

Related: Senator Elizabeth Warren questions Elon Musk about X Money

Crypto companies expand SpaceX-linked investment products ahead of IPO

The launch comes as Elon Musk’s aerospace company prepares for a public listing that could become one of the largest IPOs in US market history. In April, SpaceX confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and could move forward with the listing as early as June. This week, the company confirmed plans to sell shares of its stock to the public.

According to reports, SpaceX could seek a valuation above $1.75 trillion and raise as much as $75 billion in the offering, a size that would surpass the roughly $29 billion raised in Saudi Aramco’s 2019 IPO.

In recent months, crypto companies have increasingly launched products tied to SpaceX and other private technology companies ahead of potential public listings. In March, tokenized equities platform xStocks partnered with Fundrise to bring a fund holding private shares in companies including SpaceX, Anthropic and Databricks onchain.

In April, crypto exchange Bitget launched IPO Prime, a platform for pre-IPO investment products, starting with a SpaceX-linked offering called preSPAX. The product gave retail users economic exposure tied to the company’s potential public debut without direct ownership of the underlying shares.

On Wednesday, an SEC filing showed SpaceX held 18,712 Bitcoin (BTC) purchased at an average of $35,320 per coin, more than the 11,509 Bitcoin held by Tesla.

If the company were publicly traded today, it would rank seventh among public corporate Bitcoin holders, ahead of Coinbase Global’s 16,492 Bitcoin and behind Bullish’s 24,300, according to industry data.

Top 10 Bitcoin treasury companies. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET

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Bitcoin options open interest on Deribit has reached $31.3 billion, overtaking BlackRock’s IBIT ahead of a $6.25 billion expiry.

Deribit’s Bitcoin options open interest climbed to $31.3 billion on May 21, overtaking BlackRock’s IBIT at $27 billion. The reversal comes after IBIT briefly surpassed Deribit in April for the first time since ETF options launched in November 2024.

A total of 80,535 contracts worth $6.25 billion are set to expire on Deribit on May 29. The $75,000 strike holds the largest put concentration at $394 million, while the $80,000 call strike dominates with $532 million.

Why the $75,000 max pain level is the number to watch

The put/call ratio of 0.86 reflects a modestly bullish market stance. With max pain sitting roughly $2,000 below Bitcoin’s current price near $77,000, a gravitational pull toward $75,000 remains a real risk heading into the May 29 settlement.

Max pain is the price level where option buyers lose the most and sellers profit the most. Market makers typically hedge toward this level as expiry approaches, which can act as a soft price magnet in the days before settlement.

🚨 MIXED SIGNALS: $BTC Derivatives Market Splits

Bitcoin funding rates on Deribit surged bullish as traders aggressively added long exposure.

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But unusual options market activity points to mixed expectations, with short-term caution and longer-term bullish positioning emerging… pic.twitter.com/3U776WPprL

— Coin Edition: Your Crypto News Edge ️ (@CoinEdition) May 21, 2026

Crypto.news has tracked the $75,000 level as a persistent battleground throughout 2026. The April expiry saw a similar dynamic, with heavy positioning around key strikes as settlement approached.

What the Deribit versus IBIT battle signals for Bitcoin markets

The swing back toward Deribit’s dominance reflects how quickly positioning can shift between regulated ETF options and crypto-native derivatives. IBIT options carry longer average maturities than Deribit contracts, pointing to different investor profiles between the two venues.

$BTC – #Bitcoin markets are heading into a major derivatives event, with $6.25 billion worth of options contracts set to expire on Deribit on May 29.

The positioning shows heavy trading interest around the $75,000 and $80,000 strike levels as traders prepare for volatility in… pic.twitter.com/tC7mmNtj9R

— Blockto (@CryptoBlockto) May 21, 2026

Traders piling into $82,000 call options ahead of May 29 suggest some participants are positioned for an upside breakout through the current call wall. Crypto.news has reported on how Bitcoin options expiry dynamics shape short-term price action.

Whether Bitcoin clears $80,000 or gravitates toward $75,000 will determine which side absorbs the larger loss at the May 29 settlement. The Bitcoin (BTC) price page tracks live movements as that expiry approaches.

SUZHOU, China — Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, opened the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers’ meeting on Friday with a call for regional economies to “send a strong message to the world” in support of cooperation.

Li said he was chairing the opening meeting in place of China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who had “urgent official business,” according to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Chinese.

The trade representative role is a full minister rank. Li also serves as China’s vice commerce minister.

The APEC trade ministers’ meeting, set to conclude Saturday, comes about a week after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing. China agreed to place its first major order of Boeing aircraft in nearly a decade, and buy $17 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually through 2028.

“Even though APEC isn’t a venue for negotiations, it should play a guiding role in economic and trade discussions,” Li said.

“For consensus that has already been achieved, [APEC] should accelerate implementation and see results early,” he said.

Ambassador Rick Switzer, Deputy United States Trade Representative, is the head of the U.S. delegation for the meeting.

The U.S. is one of the 12 founding members of APEC, which was launched in 1989 in Australia as an informal forum for discussions on free trade and economic cooperation. The multilateral trade organization now has 21 members, including China, Hong Kong and “Chinese Taipei,” which joined the forum in 1991.