Half a billion dollars in crypto subscriptions, zero SpaceX shares to show for it. That’s the short version of what happened when Binance Wallet, Bybit, Bitget Wallet, and MEXC marketed “early access” to the SpaceX IPO through tokenized stocks — then canceled everything on listing day. The blockchain was supposed to cut out the middleman. Instead, it added one.

All four platforms routed their SpaceX campaigns through xStocks, a tokenized-equity provider owned by Kraken after its 2025 acquisition of Backed Finance. The mechanics were straightforward in theory: xStocks would secure actual SpaceX shares from traditional underwriters, wrap them into on-chain tracker certificates called SPCXx, and…