SpaceX’s $600 billion plunge erased equivalent of nearly half of bitcoin’s market cap in 3 days

SpaceX's stock has lost more than $600 billion in market value over three trading days, which is nearly half of bitcoin's $1.3 trillion market cap, after announcing its first bond sale.

Bitcoin BTC$62,849.42 fell less than 1% over the same stretch, holding near $63,600, per CoinDesk data.

The stock dropped 16% on Monday to $154.60, its lowest since its June 12 debut, taking its three-day decline to about 23%. The trigger was supposedly a plan to sell at least $20 billion of bonds, the company's first time borrowing in the debt markets, to fund the artificial-intelligence buildout it took on when it bought Elon Musk's xAI in February.

SpaceX chose to borrow rather than issue new shares, which would have diluted existing holders. A week ago it, was worth nearly $2.5 trillion and had briefly passed Amazon and Microsoft but now sits just above $2 trillion.

The selling ran into Tuesday, with a perpetual futures contract that tracks SpaceX on Hyperliquid down another 15% to around $151.

Part of the move is structure. SpaceX trades on a thin float, meaning only a small share of its stock is available to trade, so each move is amplified and the 16% single-session drop on a single headline reflects that thinness.

Bitcoin's market is far deeper and more liquid, which is part of why it took the same week in stride.

The two are still driven by a same engine. Monday's drop was not only SpaceX: The Nasdaq fell 1.3% as investors questioned whether the enormous sums big technology firms are spending on AI will pay off, with Alphabet and Amazon both sliding.

That AI-driven risk appetite is what aided crypto's recovery this month, so deeper cracks in it could erode the bid bitcoin has leaned on. So far the selling has stayed inside the stock.

Meanwhile, pulling the other way is oil. The U.S.-Iran peace process keeps advancing, with Washington issuing a 60-day license allowing Iran to sell oil again and negotiators describing the talks as productive. Brent crude settled below $78 a barrel.

Cheaper oil eases inflationary pressure that has kept the Federal Reserve hawkish, a slow tailwind for risk assets including bitcoin.

That leaves bitcoin drifting rather than breaking, near the lower end of the range it has held all month, caught between a wobbling AI trade and an easing oil picture.

For all the talk this year of bitcoin as the speculative bet, it was the newly public megastock that swung 23% in three days while bitcoin held its ground.

UPDATE (June 23, 07:21 UTC): Adds "equivalent" to headline.