Kraken's SpaceX moment didn't fully collapse the way Binance's, Bybit's, and Bitget's did — but it didn't go cleanly either. Kraken had acquired xStocks (the tokenized-equity provider behind the SPCXx token) and used the SpaceX IPO as the debut listing for its new "IPO Access" product. When demand massively outstripped the shares xStocks could actually source, Kraken's own customers received only a fraction of what they'd requested, and unfilled funds were refunded. The token still launched — but the allocation promise wobbled.
What Kraken Was Actually Offering
It helps to separate two different Kraken products, because they behaved very differently on the day.
Kraken's US listing routes share procurement through Payward Securities, Kraken's affiliated broker-dealer, and never touched the xStocks pipeline. That side worked. The problem was on the other side: the non-US offering, SPCXx, the same xStocks tokenized product that Binance, Bybit, Bitget and MEXC were also relying on to source physical shares from the IPO. That shared dependency is exactly where things broke.
Why Kraken Failed to Deliver
The cause ...
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