SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 a share, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion, and Jim Cramer warned this week that an early, retail‑fueled surge would be the last thing the stock needs at its Nasdaq debut.
The IPO, described as the largest in history and reportedly four times oversubscribed, is due to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX on June 12; Cramer told Mad Money viewers that inexperienced retail investors using market orders — not limit orders — could artificially spike the price and set the stock up for a sharp correction.
That risk is the weight behind Cramer’s message: a massive first‑day pop, he said, could briefly push SpaceX toward a valuation rivaling the world’s largest companies and then invite rapid selling from short‑term speculators. He has framed the broader danger in stark terms before, saying in May the IPO feeding frenzy could be "destructive" for the broader market, and this week he reiterated that buyers who chase the open rarely end well at that level.
Investors who buy the public stock will also gain the first direct exposure to SpaceX’s Bitcoin treasury. The company holds 18,712 Bitcoin on its balance sheet — roughly $2 billion at current prices — a fact that Cramer has referenced in the run of comments that trace back to his earlier, well‑timed cautions: he called Bitcoin "monopoly money" in 2017, sold most of his Bitcoin position in June 2021 before the subsequent rebound, and warned in January 2024 of a Bitcoin selloff ahead of the US spot ETF launch.
The mechanics Cramer highlighted are simple and immediate: market orders executed at the open concentrate buying pressure into a narrow window. With demand for the deal reportedly four times oversubscribed, the stock could gap upward on a torrent of retail market orders and then leave a market populated by short‑term holders, algorithmic traders and limit sellers who could turn that gap into a quick pullback.
There is a public counterforce to Cramer’s admonitions built into the market itself. The so‑called reverse Cramer effect — the tendency for his negative calls to precede rallies — is well‑known enough that an Inverse Cramer Tracker ETF, SJIM, launched in 2023 to profit from taking the other side of his recommendations. That dynamic complicates the signal his warning sends: some investors treat his caution as a contrarian buy cue, while others take it as a prompt to avoid choppy early trading.
For retail investors, Cramer’s specific tactical advice was concrete: use limit orders rather than market orders if you intend to participate at the open. For the market at large, his concern is structural — that a frenetic first day could pull capital away from other equities and inject short‑term volatility into a market already watching a historic deal.
Cramer first raised the alarm in May and has since narrowed his focus to the speculative short‑term traders who may rush to sell shortly after trading opens. What remains unanswered is the decisive one: when SPCX begins trading on June 12, will concentrated retail buying at the open produce the kind of spike and rapid correction Cramer fears, or will order flow and institutional participation smooth the debut? The opening trade will supply the clearest answer to whether this IPO becomes a market‑moving event or a flash of headline volatility.
