A synthetic perpetual contract tracking SpaceX shares just crossed $1.3 billion in notional trading volume in a single day. That’s not a typo, and it happened entirely on-chain.

The SPCX perp, built by TradeXYZ on the Hyperliquid blockchain, hit the milestone on June 12, the same day SpaceX officially debuted on Nasdaq at $135 per share. Reports peg the peak volume at $1.34 billion, making it one of the largest single-day performances for any synthetic asset product in crypto history.

How we got here

TradeXYZ launched the SPCX perpetual contract back on May 17-18, roughly a month before SpaceX’s anticipated IPO. The contract debuted with a reference price of $150, which implied a valuation of approximately $1.78 trillion for SpaceX at the time.

SPCX traded in a range between $162 and $185 around its debut window, well above the official IPO price of $135. Daily volumes for SPCX had been building steadily, crossing $300 million and then surging past $500 million on separate occasions before the record-breaking session. Cumulative SPCX-related volume across all trading venues exceeded $2 billion prior to that June 12 peak.

TradeXYZ isn’t the only venue offering exposure to SpaceX. Binance, Coinbase International, Gate.io, and OKX have all facilitated SPCX trades in some form. But Hyperliquid remained the primary hub for liquidity and activity.

TradeXYZ’s dominance in pre-IPO perps

TradeXYZ has captured an estimated 95% of cumulative volume and open interest in pre-IPO products built under Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 framework, the protocol-level standard that enables pre-IPO and real-world asset perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid.

SPCX isn’t even TradeXYZ’s first rodeo. The platform previously launched a CBRS perpetual contract tied to Cerebras, the AI chip company, before its public listing. It also runs an SPX perp tracking the S&P 500, which has recorded its own significant trading days.

What this means for investors

The SpaceX IPO aimed to raise a record $75 billion. Before SpaceX shares ever changed hands on Nasdaq, traders were establishing prices and expressing directional bets through a synthetic contract on Hyperliquid weeks in advance.

The risks are real. Synthetic contracts don’t confer any actual equity ownership. Traders who bought SPCX at $185 and held through the $135 IPO listing learned that lesson quickly.

Products that offer synthetic exposure to securities, especially ahead of an IPO, sit in an uncomfortable gray zone. The fact that multiple centralized exchanges listed SPCX contracts suggests the industry is betting regulators won’t clamp down immediately. But a $1.3 billion volume day has a way of attracting attention from people who write enforcement letters for a living.