Bybit Tokenizes SpaceX IPO as AI Hedge Fund Bets on Power/Compute
A 24-year-old former OpenAI researcher, Leopold Aschenbrenner, runs the AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness, now managing about $20B after ~270% returns (net of fees) through May and nearly quadrupling capital since January. His strategy targets the AI “picks-and-shovels”: electricity and compute infrastructure rather than which model wins.
The fund’s largest position is a private stake in Anthropic (Claude). Aschenbrenner bought in during February 2025 at an ~$60B valuation; a May 2026 funding round reportedly lifted valuation to about $965B, making Anthropic nearly 20% of the portfolio. The fund also holds positions tied to AI power/compute, including Bloom Energy (on-site fuel cells) and CoreWeave (AI computing capacity rentals). It is also positioned defensively: more than $1.5B short Nvidia and over $2B short a chip basket, arguing current semiconductor valuations assume perfect execution while electricity is the binding constraint.
On the crypto market side, Bybit confirmed it will let eligible users subscribe to tokenized shares in US IPOs at the offering price, starting with SpaceX. Using the xStocks framework, demand is aggregated across partner platforms; allocations are distributed pro-rata and unused funds are refunded. Tokenized SpaceX shares are set to start trading on Bybit’s spot market on June 12, each backed 1:1 by underlying equity held in regulated broker-dealer custody.
SpaceX filed confidentially with the SEC in April after acquiring xAI, and demand reportedly exceeds available shares. The company targets a valuation of at least $75B.
Overall, the news reinforces a theme traders are watching: capital rotating from pure token speculation toward infrastructure and tokenized real-world assets—here, via tokenized IPO access.
Bullish
Overall, the article is mildly bullish for crypto-linked markets because it highlights two ongoing capital-rotation narratives that tend to support broader risk appetite: (1) AI infrastructure “picks-and-shovels” (power/compute) attracting institutional-style allocation, and (2) tokenized real-world assets becoming more accessible on major exchanges via tokenized IPO products.
In the short term, Bybit’s tokenized SpaceX offering can drive incremental trading activity around tokenized equities/derivatives rails and improve sentiment toward regulated market-structure innovations. Historically, when large venues announce tokenized access (similar to prior waves of tokenized Treasuries/equities experiments), liquidity and retail participation often rise before fundamentals catch up.
In the medium-to-long term, the hedge fund’s power/compute thesis (and miners repackaging as AI infrastructure providers) aligns with a sustained theme: infrastructure winners may capture more durable cashflows than pure-token narratives. That can be supportive for market stability if traders shift focus from speculative endpoints to yield/settlement-linked rails.
Risks remain: shorting chip baskets and focusing on electricity as the true bottleneck could imply volatility in AI-adjacent equities/tech sentiment, and regulatory constraints on who can participate can limit upside. Still, the directionality—more tradable RWA access and more attention to infrastructure—leans bullish.