Tokenised IPOs Explained: How You Can Buy Shares Of Elon Musk’s SpaceX With Virtual Digital Assets

Primary markets across the globe are abuzz with activity as several major companies are looking to list their shares. Closer home too, the excitement is brewing as primary market investors anticipate the listing of NSE, Zepto and other major companies.

Globally too, investors are looking forward to the public issues of tech and aerospace giants like OpenAI and SpaceX, respectively.

Amid the buzz around these initial public offerings (IPOs), retail investors remain keen to get a chance to invest in high-growth companies. Typically, retail investors only get a chance to invest in the public issues of major companies once the subscription window opens. However, early allocations are typically concentrated among major institutional investors, hedge funds, and ultra-wealthy private banking clients.

Bybit’s IPO Express Launch

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced the launch of a new product called Bybit IPO Express on June 8, 2026. The platform seeks to provide retail investors primary market opportunities globally by offering tokenised access to IPOs at their actual offering price rather than waiting for the subscription window to open. The company mentioned in a release that investors will be able to invest in the SpaceX IPO through the platform before it opens for subscription.

According to the release, the process will become operational through a partnership with Payward Services’ xStocks. Payward Services’ xStocks is a regulated, tokenisation framework that brings US equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and primary market IPO allocations onto the Blockchain.

The framework does so by securing equity shares in regulated broker-dealer custody on the day of the public listing. These are then tokenised to create digital representations of the publicly traded equities backed on a strict 1:1 basis.

For the SpaceX IPO, the process began with a dual registration and subscription window from June 7 and will continue till June 11. In the registration phase, investors can indicate their non-binding interest through the platform. The subscription window also allows investors to submit formal subscription requests within the designated IPO price range. When a request is submitted, the investor’s funds are committed and locked within the system until the allocation phase begins.

For the aerospace company’s IPO, the allocation will be decided on June 11-12. On these dates, the system will determine the individual token distributions on a pro-rata basis, depending on the total global subscription demand.

Once allotment is finalised, the tokenised SpaceX shares will be distributed into the investor accounts as a token. If the demand exceeds availability and an investor does not receive the full amount of shares they requested for, the system will automatically refund the unused, committed funds back to their account.

In the final phase of the process, the tokenised SpaceX shares will transition from the primary to the secondary market, allowing the newly distributed tokens to be openly traded on the platform’s spot market, thus allowing buying and selling among global users.

For investors, this can offer a streamlined route to participate in major US-market listings from a crypto account, thereby reducing complex paperwork and maintenance fees associated with traditional international brokerage accounts.

Tokenisation of Shares In India

Tokenisation is the process of converting the ownership of a real-world asset into a ‘token’ on a Blockchain. With reference to the Space X IPO, this would mean that the company’s shares will be turned into a digital asset with each token mirroring the price movement of the underlying stock and representing fractional ownership of a share.

For investors in India, the tokenisation of shares opens up a new way of investing in globally listed shares. Typically, to invest in stocks listed outside India, residents need to use the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). The LRS allows individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for transactions.

Under standard operations, tokenised shares exist on global decentralised networks which in turn allow Indian investors to trade them 24/7 with crypto-market settlement and fractional investing options.

The Realities for Indian Crypto Investors

While the idea of investing in the global market seems seamless, domestic investors must note that investments in cryptocurrency remain a grey area in India. Thus, investors have to factor in several restrictions such as a 30 per cent tax on income derived from the transfer of virtual digital assets (VDAs), along with the lack of allowance for offsetting losses against other income. Additionally, a 1 per cent tax is also deducted at source (TDS) on crypto buying and selling transactions.

Investors should also note that real-world asset tokenisation sits in a regulatory gray area in India, thus local investors lack the protection frameworks offered by the capital market regulator. Additionally, IPO related assets tend to witness extreme price volatility after listing. Thus investors must weigh the various risks involved against the benefits offered before investing.