High-profile stock market debuts by technology giants could trigger a new wave of competition for investors’ money. Following SpaceX’s listing, OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing their own IPOs. For the stock market, this could mark the beginning of an era of mega-listings*, while for cryptocurrencies, it could become a serious challenge.
* A mega-listing is the stock market debut of a very large private company with a high market valuation and a substantial volume of shares being offered. The term is generally used for exceptionally large IPOs capable of raising tens of billions of dollars, influencing stock indices, and altering the distribution of capital across markets.
Investors rarely abandon risk completely. More often, they simply choose where to direct it. Until recently, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets were the main magnets for speculative capital. They now face powerful competitors: shares in the world’s largest private technology companies.
The IPO that changed the scale of the market
In June 2026, SpaceX conducted the largest IPO*in the history of financial markets. Elon Musk’s space company raised $75 billion by selling 555.6 million SPCX shares at $135 each.
* An IPO (Initial Public Offering) is a process through which a private company offers its shares to a broad range of investors on a stock exchange for the first time. Following an initial public offering (IPO), the company becomes publicly traded: its shares begin trading freely on the market, and their price is determined by supply and demand. The company gains an opportunity to raise additional capital but is also required to disclose financial statements and other material information about its operations on a regular basis.
The offering immediately became one of the year’s major events. Against this backdrop, Elon Musk’s net worth exceeded $1.1 trillion, making him the world’s first dollar trillionaire.
However, the significance of the SpaceX IPO extends far beyond Musk’s personal fortune. Analysts are already describing the event as the beginning of the era of super-IPOs, in which companies valued at levels comparable to the world’s largest economies and asset classes enter the stock market.
SpaceX became a public company following its merger with xAI, another of Elon Musk's ventures that develops artificial intelligence technologies and the Grok neural network. Before the transaction, SpaceX was valued at $1 trillion, while xAI was valued at $250 billion. Following the offering, the market value of the combined company significantly exceeded the businesses’ previous aggregate valuation.
SpaceX rapidly entered the top league
The market responded immediately. According to Reuters, Nasdaq launched an expedited procedure to include SPCX shares in the Nasdaq-100 index*. Just 15 days after trading began, SpaceX shares were already included in the index calculation.
* The Nasdaq-100 is a stock market index that reflects the performance of shares of the 100 largest non-financial companies traded on the US Nasdaq stock exchange. It primarily includes technology companies, as well as businesses operating in telecommunications, healthcare, retail, and consumer goods.
Such speed can be described as unprecedented. A company is normally required to have traded on the exchange for at least three full months before it can qualify for inclusion in the Nasdaq-100. The month in which the IPO takes place is not counted.
During its first month of trading, SpaceX entered the list of the world’s ten largest assets. The company surpassed Saudi Aramco, Tesla, and Bitcoin by market capitalization. In July 2026, SPCX’s market value reached approximately $1.95 trillion.
For investors, this became another reminder that the technology market is once again capable of creating assets that can compete in scale not only with individual companies but with the entire cryptocurrency sector.
Capital is beginning to change direction
The main question for the crypto market is not the success of SpaceX itself, but where investors obtained the money to participate in the offering.
Amid the preparation for and completion of major IPOs, experts recorded prolonged outflows from exchange-traded funds based on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since the beginning of May 2026, funds had been leaving Bitcoin ETFs* for seven consecutive weeks, marking the longest period of uninterrupted outflows in recent times.
* An ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is an investment fund whose shares are traded on a stock exchange in the same way as ordinary stocks. The fund pools investors’ money and invests it in a specific set of assets, such as company shares, bonds, commodities, or cryptocurrencies. By purchasing a share in an ETF, an investor gains exposure to the performance of the entire basket of assets without having to purchase and store each of them separately.
At the same time, Bitcoin’s price fell from $81,700 to $58,400, reaching its lowest level in two years.
It is difficult to prove a direct causal link between the SpaceX IPO and the decline in cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the timing is notable. When a new high-profile investment opportunity appears on the market, capital begins searching for a more attractive balance between risk and potential return.
Until recently, investors seeking exposure to technological growth often chose Bitcoin, blockchain projects, and tokens associated with artificial intelligence. They can now purchase shares in a company that combines space technologies, satellite communications, and AI development.
The scale of the offering also matters. The $75 billion raised by SpaceX is equivalent to approximately 3.5% of the entire cryptocurrency market’s capitalization. A single IPO is not enough to radically alter global capital flows. However, if other technology giants follow SpaceX onto the stock market, competition for investors’ money will become significantly more intense.
Next in line: OpenAI and Anthropic
SpaceX may prove to be only the first participant in a new wave of mega-listings. The largest artificial intelligence developers are preparing their own offerings.
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude neural network, is valued at approximately $350 billion. The company could conduct an initial public offering as early as October 2026.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has received a valuation of approximately $500 billion. Its stock market debut is expected in the final quarter of 2026.
If both companies go public, investors will gain direct access to the leading participants in the artificial intelligence market. Previously, investors could primarily gain exposure to AI development through shares in Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, and other corporations that finance or support the industry. The market may now gain independent, publicly traded AI giants.
For cryptocurrencies, this creates additional competition. Tokens issued by AI projects have long attracted investors by offering an opportunity to participate in a new technological trend. However, shares in OpenAI and Anthropic may appear to be more understandable and familiar instruments, particularly for institutional investors.
Why shares in AI companies may be more attractive than cryptocurrencies
A stock market listing inevitably makes a company’s operations more transparent. Public corporations are required to disclose financial indicators, revenue structure, expenses, debt, strategic risks, and other significant information.
An investor can examine financial statements, assess growth rates, and compare a company with its competitors. This does not eliminate risk, but it makes the risk more measurable.
The cryptocurrency market operates differently. The value of many digital assets still depends on market expectations, community activity, listings, tokenomics*, and general speculative demand. Some projects lack a sustainable business model, transparent financial reporting, or clear revenue sources.
* Tokenomics is the set of economic rules governing the creation, distribution, and use of tokens within a particular cryptocurrency project. It includes the maximum and current number of tokens, their issuance procedure, distribution between the team and investors, unlocking schedules, use cases, and reward and token-burning mechanisms.
This contrast becomes particularly noticeable under tight monetary policy. When the cost of money rises, investors pay closer attention to fundamental indicators and become less willing to pay solely for promises of future growth.
A series of major IPOs could therefore intensify the outflow of capital from the riskiest segments of the crypto market. Assets whose investment proposition is based primarily on a popular technological trend may be the first to come under pressure.
Not only a threat: what the crypto market could gain from mega-listings
However, viewing the stock market debuts of technology giants exclusively as a threat to cryptocurrencies would be overly simplistic.
Mega-listings could accelerate the development of tokenised assets*.
* Tokenized assets are real-world or financial assets whose ownership rights are represented in the form of digital tokens on a blockchain. A token may be linked to a share, bond, property, precious metal, commodity, or other type of asset. Tokenization enables the division of an asset into small fractions, the automation of rights transfers, and the organization of its circulation through digital infrastructure.
Tokenized pre-IPO assets (assets created before a public offering of shares) are attracting particular interest. They allow investors to gain indirect exposure to the value of a private company before its shares officially begin trading on a stock exchange.
Similar instruments emerged before the SpaceX offering. They drew attention not only to the company itself but also to blockchain platforms that connect traditional finance with digital infrastructure.
The upcoming IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic could strengthen this trend. The greater the interest in shares of privately held technology companies, the higher the demand for instruments that allow investors to trade related digital assets before the official listing.
Consequently, some capital may indeed move from conventional cryptocurrencies into technology stocks. At the same time, mega-listings could bring a new audience to the blockchain sector—one interested in tokenization and round-the-clock trading in traditional assets.
AI tokens could also benefit
There is another possible scenario. Successful offerings by OpenAI, Anthropic, and other developers could increase interest in the entire artificial intelligence sector, including cryptocurrency projects associated with it.
Growth in the market capitalization of publicly traded AI companies could support tokens issued by decentralized computing, data storage, machine learning, and AI application infrastructure platforms.
The market has repeatedly demonstrated that a high-profile development in the traditional technology sector can spread to cryptocurrencies. For example, growing interest in artificial intelligence often leads to increased demand for tokens that are at least indirectly associated with the industry.
However, not every project will benefit. Investors may begin to distinguish more carefully between projects with functioning products and understandable economics and assets that use a popular theme merely as a marketing tool.
Cryptocurrencies will have to prove their value again
The future of the digital asset market largely depends on the role investors assign to it within the new financial system.
If cryptocurrencies are viewed as a separate speculative segment dependent on inflows into exchange-traded funds and the general appetite for risk, mega-listings will become serious competitors.
However, if blockchain becomes part of the broader technology market—as infrastructure for tokenization, settlements, the storage of rights, and round-the-clock asset trading—the growth of publicly traded technology companies could benefit the crypto industry.
In the new race for capital, cryptocurrencies will no longer be able to rely solely on their reputation as an innovative market. They will have to compete with companies that offer investors not only a technological vision, but also shares, financial statements, and a clear stake in a real business.