SpaceX didn’t just go public last week. It went supernova. And now, with options trading live as of June 16, investors are piling into the derivatives market with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for a new iPhone launch, except the stakes are measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the first 10 minutes alone, roughly 115,000 options contracts changed hands on the Cboe. By the end of the session, somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 contracts had traded, generating more than $400 million in premium. To put that in perspective, SPCX options instantly ranked as the third most actively traded single-stock options on the market, behind only Tesla and Nvidia.

The numbers behind the frenzy

SpaceX’s IPO on June 12 priced shares at $135. They didn’t stay there long. By the close of the first trading day, shares had surged to approximately $160.95, a nearly 20% pop that set the stage for the options mania that followed four days later.

The IPO itself raised approximately $75 billion, establishing a valuation near $1.77 trillion.

When options launched, the sentiment was overwhelmingly directional. Calls outpaced puts by a ratio of 1.7-to-1. The most popular contract was the $220-strike call, meaning traders were wagering that SpaceX shares would jump another 37% or more from the IPO close price.

Implied volatility opened at 110-115%. For context, a typical large-cap tech stock might see implied volatility in the 25-40% range.

What this means for investors

The most immediate implication is volatility. When implied volatility opens at 110-115%, the market is telling you that big moves are expected. Options sellers are demanding enormous premiums because they believe the stock could swing dramatically in either direction.

There’s also a crypto angle worth noting. SpaceX holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet, which creates an interesting dynamic for investors who already have crypto exposure. Buying SPCX effectively gives you indirect Bitcoin exposure layered on top of an aerospace and satellite internet business.

The risk that nobody’s talking about is the lockup expiration. Early investors and insiders who received shares pre-IPO are typically restricted from selling for 90 to 180 days. When that window opens, a flood of supply could hit the market at precisely the moment retail enthusiasm starts to cool.

A $1.77 trillion valuation puts SpaceX in the company of Apple, Microsoft, and a handful of other giants. The options market is now the arena where that valuation will be stress-tested in real time, one contract at a time.