As a mirrored ticket (Mirror Note) that tracks SpaceX’s early value, SPCX is not a stock purchase in the traditional sense. Instead, it uses a brand-new digital certificate mechanism to track the target company’s market value before and after it goes public. The first subscription window for Gate Pre-IPOs’ inaugural project SPCX runs from April 20, 2026 18:00 to April 22, 2026 18:00 (UTC+8), supporting participation with both USDT and GUSD.
Over the past year, SpaceX’s valuation has made an eye-catching three-step jump: from approximately $400 billion in July 2025, to $800 billion in internal pricing in December 2025, and then to $1.25 trillion after SpaceX merged with xAI, Musk’s AI company, in February 2026. The market broadly expects SpaceX to complete an IPO sometime in 2026, and the target valuation range has been raised to between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion.
Against this backdrop, Gate launched SPCX subscriptions at an implied market value of $1.4 trillion, priced at $590 per share—bringing this type of participation opportunity, which is typically dominated by private funds and institutions, to ordinary investors.
Transparency in the Cost Structure
Gate Pre-IPOs’ SPCX features a differentiated design in its cost structure. The first subscription round fully waives implied fees and custody fees. It is offered to users at a net price of 1 SPCX = $590, with a minimum participation threshold of 100 USDT or 100 GUSD. For investors who are bullish on the commercial aerospace sector but are limited by capital size, SPCX provides a highly transparent price-discovery tool.
Under SPCX’s subscription framework, every unit of capital directly corresponds to the value of the asset certificate, and the participation cost is compressed to the minimum. The “zero-fee” policy in the first phase reflects Gate’s staged concession for this new product line; the cost structure for future rounds will be subject to the actual announcements.
Flexible Entry and Exit Enabled by Pre-IPO Trading
After SPCX subscriptions are completed, the asset certificates will enter the pre-IPO trading phase in a 100% unlocked form (see the distribution announcement for the specific opening time). Pre-IPO trading will be available within 30 days after the subscription, supporting free buy and sell 7×24 hours a day. Users who hold positions can freely trade SPCX on the platform before the target company goes public and during the lock-up period, enabling price discovery and position adjustments.
Investors are no longer tied to a single exit path of “waiting for the IPO.” For users focused on short-term trading opportunities, the existence of a pre-IPO market provides operational room driven by liquidity premium. For long-term holders, it preserves the option to exit at market value after the IPO lock-up period.
Regarding the lock-up period and exit methods: this asset lock-up period is 6 months after the listing. After the lock-up period, Gate will provide users with an exclusive exit page. Holders can redeem their holdings into stock tokens, or redeem them into USDT based on the real-time market price of the actual stocks after listing.
Macro Backdrop of the Commercial Aerospace Track: Certain Growth in a Trillion-Dollar Market
To evaluate SPCX’s long-term value anchor, it is inseparable from understanding the commercial aerospace sector itself.
According to data from the U.S. space foundation, the global space economy reached $613 billion in 2024. Of that, commercial aerospace contributes 78%. It is expected that the global space economy will break $1 trillion as early as 2032. Multiple research institutions indicate that from 2026 to 2027, the world is likely to enter a breakout period for the commercial aerospace industry. Technology iteration and engineering execution pace will continue to accelerate, and demand for space missions such as launch services and satellite networking will be further released.
As the absolute leader in this sector, SpaceX’s value drivers have expanded beyond simple rocket launch services into a multidimensional ecosystem. The Starlink project currently has millions of subscribers, and is expected to generate $22 billion to $24 billion in revenue in 2026, becoming a core source of cash flow supporting its valuation. After completing its merger with xAI in February 2026, SpaceX’s narrative further upgrades from a “hardware service provider” to a “space AI” ecosystem builder, while also attracting two types of capital: those bullish on space technology and those bullish on artificial intelligence.
The valuation of the commercial aerospace sector is highly sensitive to the macro interest-rate environment and regulatory policies. High-valuation technology sectors often face repricing pressure during market interest-rate rising cycles. For investors participating in SPCX with an implied market value of $1.4 trillion, this macro backdrop is a variable that must be continuously monitored.
Risk Dimensions That Need to Be Considered
Any investment decision should be based on a thorough understanding of risks. Regarding SPCX, the following factors are worth investors clearly recognizing:
- Uncertainty of timing: The maturity settlement date is December 31, 2035. If SpaceX does not go public long-term, is not acquired, or does not merge, the capital occupation period may be extended accordingly. If it still has not gone public/acquired/merged/bankrupt after the maturity date, Gate will settle in USDT at a reasonable market price based on SpaceX’s common stock. Before the maturity date, SPCX’s liquidity mainly relies on the pre-IPO trading market.
- Non-shareholder status: SPCX is a mirror note (Mirror Note), a type of contingent payout note (Contingent Payout Note). It does not represent SpaceX’s actual stock or shares. There is no legal relationship between holders and SpaceX, and holders do not enjoy dividend rights or voting rights. Its value anchor depends on Gate’s hedging exposure management and market trading consensus.
- Market volatility: In the early stages of the pre-IPO market, there may be risks of widened spreads due to insufficient order-book depth. SPCX’s price is driven by market supply and demand, and may deviate from the underlying company’s fundamental value.
- Macroeconomic linkage risk: The valuation of the commercial aerospace sector is highly sensitive to the interest-rate environment. If market interest rates remain at high levels for an extended period, the pricing of high-valuation growth assets may face pressure.
- Extreme scenarios: If the target company enters bankruptcy liquidation proceedings, causing the value of common shares to become zero, the reference value of SPCX will also become zero, and investors may lose all principal.
- Equity dilution risk: This asset certificate tracks the value of the target company’s common shares according to the stock price. If the target company issues additional shares in the future, it may dilute the value corresponding to each current share. If the company conducts a stock split or reverse split, Gate will calculate and adjust users’ positions accordingly based on the actual situation.
Participation Strategy
Based on the analysis above, participants of different types can establish differentiated participation frameworks:
Conservative participants may focus on allocation mechanisms of “early participation” and “higher weighting.” According to the Pre-IPOs distribution rules, the system allocates based on the proportion of each user’s average locked amount per hour to the overall total subscription amount. The earlier you participate and the longer you lock up, the higher your allocation weight. With the same $100,000 USDT input, the user participating in the first hour receives an allocation weight about 48 times higher than the user participating in the last hour (the subscription cycle is 48 hours in total). Conservative users can lock in participation at the beginning of the subscription, then after getting more chips, partially exit opportunistically in the early stage of pre-IPO trading to lock in profits.
Long-term holders may choose to ignore short-term pre-IPO volatility and hold through the IPO lock-up period (6 months after listing). After that ends, they can redeem SPCX into stock tokens via the exclusive page, or redeem it into USDT based on real-time market prices. The core assumption of this path is that SpaceX completes an IPO or an M&A exit in the long run.
High-net-worth users can use VIP-exclusive airdrop mechanisms to reduce their overall holding cost. VIP 5 and above users, as well as super agents that meet basic requirements, can enjoy additional free airdrops (for the specific quantities and rules, see the official event announcements). This extra benefit can serve as a safety buffer for holding costs.
Closing Remarks
As the first-phase project of Gate Pre-IPOs, the launch of SPCX is not only a new tool for tracking SpaceX’s value, but also the first test of the market for Gate’s operational capability for this new product line. To ensure a strong first-round experience, the platform has laid out phased policies such as fee waivers, higher-weight allocation, and VIP-exclusive airdrops. These constitute the unique advantages for participants in the first phase.
Participating in Pre-IPOs is a high-risk investment behavior that is not principal-guaranteed. The price of asset certificates may fluctuate drastically, and may even lead to loss of principal. Investors should make a rational participation decision by understanding the product mechanism, exit paths, and potential risks in full, and by combining their own capital planning and risk tolerance.
As crypto platforms continue to evolve toward multi-asset, multi-market integration, Gate Pre-IPOs’ launch achieves forward-looking exploration in terms of product form. In the future, this product line will continue to expand into more high-quality underlying assets, promoting the industry to move toward a more open and efficient direction.
