Destiny Tech100 jumps 35% as traders chase a backdoor bet on a rumored SpaceX IPO

Wall Street just found a workaround for buying SpaceX stock: buy something else that owns it.

Shares of Destiny Tech100 surged about 35% as chatter spread that Elon Musk’s SpaceX could file for an initial public offering soon, an offering that market talk pegs at more than $75 billion. With SpaceX still private, Destiny Tech100 suddenly started trading less like a diversified fund and more like a “ticket” to the rocket maker.

The catch: Destiny Tech100 isn’t SpaceX. It’s a publicly traded vehicle with its own supply-and-demand dynamics, and only a slice of its portfolio is tied to Musk’s company. That hasn’t stopped traders from piling in.

A public-market “proxy” for SpaceX

As the IPO buzz picked up, Destiny Tech100 posted eye-popping moves, reports of single-day gains around 15% and intraday swings approaching 25% in some market observations. Those are the kinds of jumps you see when investors stop pricing a product on fundamentals and start pricing it on a story.

That story is simple: Destiny Tech100 offers indirect exposure to SpaceX. The most recent public snapshot of the portfolio, dated December 2025, showed SpaceX as its largest holding at roughly 16.2%.

In a multi-holding fund, a position north of 15% can dominate the way the shares trade. When the narrative becomes “SpaceX IPO is imminent,” everything else in the basket fades into the background.

Why 16.2% can still whip the stock around

That 16.2% allocation is more than a footnote, it’s a volatility lever. When one holding becomes the headline, the fund can start moving as if it were a concentrated bet, even if it isn’t designed that way.

Market chatter has framed the timing as near-term, with some talk suggesting a filing could come as soon as this week or next. A tight timeline tends to turbocharge speculative behavior: traders rush in, liquidity gets stressed, and price swings widen.

The risk is just as obvious as the opportunity. If the IPO timeline slips, the deal structure changes, or the broader market turns risk-off, the same “proxy trade” can unwind fast, especially if the stock has already priced in an optimistic scenario.

The $75 billion figure, and the retail angle, are pulling in small investors

The number driving the frenzy is the idea of a raise above $75 billion. At that scale, a SpaceX IPO wouldn’t just be an aerospace event, it would be a market event, the kind that draws in everyone from institutions to day traders.

Another accelerant: talk that individual investors could get more than 20% of the allocation. That kind of access, if it materializes, changes the psychology. When retail traders believe they’ll have a meaningful shot at shares, they often try to position ahead of time.

Because SpaceX is private, that positioning can spill into anything that looks even loosely connected, starting with a fund that holds SpaceX and trades on a major exchange.

Space stocks caught the same wave

The SpaceX halo didn’t stop with Destiny Tech100. A cluster of space-related stocks jumped in sympathy as traders bought the theme.

In the same burst of trading, names like Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and AST SpaceMobile were up more than 10% in some sessions. Other space-linked stocks also saw sharp moves, including Sidus Space (around 24.9%), Intuitive Machines (around 19.7%), Satellogic (around 19.9%), and EchoStar (around 8.5%), which has been cited in market chatter as holding SpaceX shares.

These kinds of synchronized pops don’t mean revenues or margins suddenly improved overnight. They’re a read on sentiment and flows, money chasing a narrative that “space is hot again.”

The rest of the portfolio: OpenAI, xAI, Revolut, and Kraken

Destiny Tech100 isn’t a one-stock story on paper. The fund has also disclosed smaller exposures to other high-profile private companies, including OpenAI (about 2.1%), Musk’s xAI (about 3.5%), U.K. fintech Revolut (about 2.9%), and crypto exchange Kraken (about 1.5%).

But right now, those holdings are background noise. The catalyst traders care about is singular: a potential SpaceX IPO with a massive headline valuation and a rumored retail-friendly allocation.

That simplification is exactly where the risk lives. Private-company stakes don’t trade with the transparency of public stocks, and fund shares can swing to premiums or discounts based on hype, flows, and liquidity. Investors buying Destiny Tech100 as a SpaceX stand-in may be paying up for an exposure that’s real, but partial, and priced for perfection.

If the SpaceX spotlight dims and attention shifts back to AI, fintech, or crypto, Destiny Tech100 could still move sharply, just for different reasons. For traders, that’s the appeal. For long-term investors, it’s the warning label.