Rocket company staffers and pre-IPO holders can now dump more than 911 million shares after the first lockup period expired Thursday.

🚀 Unlock day fails to sink the rocket

  • SpaceX climbed 6.1% to $114.92 Thursday — even as 911.5 million previously restricted shares became eligible for trading.
  • The market spent days bracing for an insider stampede, then discovered that “can sell” and “will sell immediately” are very different flight plans.
  • The bounce followed , SpaceX’s second-worst session on record. Shares closed at an all-time low of $108.27 as costly AI ambitions collided with lockup anxiety.
  • Thursday’s recovery still leaves the rocket maker roughly 15% below its $135 IPO price. Translation: June’s debut buyers remain underwater at current market price — just slightly less underwater than Wednesday, when somebody apparently opened the airlock.

🔓 A $100 billion exit door opens

  • The unlocked block represents roughly 7% of SpaceX’s outstanding shares and is worth more than $100 billion at Thursday’s close. That is also considerably larger than the 639 million shares sold through the record IPO, which .
  • A lockup prevents employees and early investors from selling for a specified period after an IPO. Its expiration merely removes that restriction; nobody is forced to cash out.
  • Some holders want liquidity. Others may prefer Mars. Or at least a price above $135 (“Please just go back to entry. I don’t even want profits anymore.”)
  • More tradable shares increase the “float,” meaning the stock available for public trading. That can improve liquidity but also create selling pressure. One cheerful session doesn’t prove every insider has diamond hands.

📅 More supply waits on the launchpad

  • The supply calendar stays crowded: another 319 million shares may unlock August 20, followed by roughly 700 million in September and a similarly sized batch in October. That potential supply is an “overhang”—stock that could weigh on prices if holders sell.
  • Elon Musk, SpaceX’s largest shareholder (and a former trillionaire), owns more than 6 billion shares, or 40% of all shares, but his stake remains locked until June 2027.
  • So the market can postpone the “What if Elon sells?” episode. The real question is how many newly liberated insiders want cash.