SpaceX's long-awaited S-1 filing, submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, confirmed the company holds 18,712 BTC at a total cost basis of $661mn, implying an average acquisition price of roughly $35,320 per coin. With Bitcoin trading around $77,800 on Thursday, the position carries an unrealized gain of approximately 120%.
SpaceX Sitting on 120% Bitcoin Gain as IPO Filing Lays Out Holdings
21 May 2026 - 08:17 CEST
By Oihyun Kim
Market entry
SpaceX entered the Bitcoin market in 2021, around the same time Tesla made its $1.5bn purchase. Elon Musk first disclosed the position publicly in July of that year, without specifying the amount.
The company built its position to a peak of roughly 28,000 BTC before selling around 70% of that during the 2022 crypto crash. Both figures are sourced from onchain data tracked by Arkham Intelligence.
Arkham identified a residual balance of around 8,285 BTC, but the S-1's audited figure of 18,712 BTC suggests the onchain tracking might have captured only part of the total position. Neither SpaceX nor Arkham has commented on the difference.
Frozen since 2022
The sell-down only became public in August 2023, when the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX had written down its holdings by $373mn and sold an unspecified amount of Bitcoin. The news pushed Bitcoin below $25,000, triggering cascading liquidations across leveraged positions.
The S-1 shows identical holdings at year-end 2024 and 2025, with no purchases or sales recorded in between.
Record IPO ahead
SpaceX is targeting a 12 Jun Nasdaq debut under the ticker SPCX. The company is seeking a valuation of $1.75tn to $2tn, which would surpass Saudi Aramco's 2020 listing as the largest IPO ever.
The financials show a mixed picture. SpaceX posted 2025 revenue of $18.67bn but recorded a $2.59bn operating loss, weighed down by spending on Starship and AI infrastructure.
Musk will serve as CEO, CTO, and chairman of the board after the listing. A dual-class share structure gives him 85.1% of voting power.
