In a striking divergence of market sentiment, retail traders on MEXC’s newly launched RealStocks platform poured nearly a third of their first-month volume into SpaceX (SPCX), even as institutional investors fled the stock ahead of a massive lock-up expiration. According to MEXC’s June trading insights, SPCX accounted for 29.70% of total volume and 29.06% of trading users, making it the undisputed consensus trade among its global user base.
MEXC, a zero‑fee digital asset exchange, introduced RealStocks on June 1, offering access to over 7,000 US equities and ETFs through a FINRA‑registered broker‑dealer. European users represented approximately 50% of participation, while developed Asian markets contributed 16%. The product quickly attracted more than 120,000 sign‑ups, with over half making a first deposit.
Trading patterns revealed a broad appetite for artificial intelligence plays: seven AI‑related assets—AAOI, MU, NVDA, MRVL, DRAM, AVGO, and SNDK—together captured 23.67% of total volume, spanning GPU compute, memory, networking, and optical components. Notably, well‑known mega‑caps like AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL drew wide participation but did not dominate the leaderboard, while narrower industry‑chain names like AAOI and AVGO reached top‑10 volume with fewer, more concentrated traders.
“Futures follow the news cycle. RealStocks showed conviction as a portfolio product. More than 40% of first‑month volume sat outside the top ten names. That is portfolio building, not headline trading.” said MEXC CEO Vugar Usi.
Yet the enthusiasm on the crypto‑exchange platform collided with a harsh reality on Wall Street. SpaceX shares fell more than 5% on Tuesday to around $107, well below the June IPO price of $135, extending a decline that has wiped out over $1.2 trillion in market value from its post‑IPO peak of $225.64. Monday marked the stock’s 13th decline in the last 16 sessions.
Investor anxiety centers on the first post‑IPO lock‑up expiration set for August 6, just two business days after SpaceX’s expected first quarterly earnings report. Early backers will be eligible to sell nearly one billion shares, far exceeding the 629 million shares sold in the June 12 IPO. Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens noted that the anticipation of dilution is likely weighing on the stock, adding that “most of the available shares will come to market, because the existing sellers have low cost basis and long holding periods.” Additional lock‑up expirations follow later in August and through September, potentially freeing over 6.4 billion shares over the next year.
In the meantime, KeyBanc maintained its Sector Weight rating on SpaceX, emphasizing that continued Starship execution remains the most critical long‑term driver. The firm flagged the decision to stop accepting Falcon 9 launch bookings after 2028 as a sign of growing dependence on Starship’s commercialization.
The contrasting narratives—retail conviction on a crypto platform versus institutional caution over supply overhang—illustrate the unusual cross‑currents shaping one of the market’s most watched post‑IPO stories.
