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Story: SpaceX Insiders Miss $80 Billion Bonus as Stock Collapses 53% From Peak

By Dan Saada

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The 53% Drop That Killed the Unlock. To understand how SpaceX got here, you have to go back to June 16. That was the peak.

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Musk, Short-Sellers, and a $25 Billion Bet Against SpaceX. Elon Musk wasn't quiet about any of this. By July, short-sellers had built up a $25 billion…

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Post-Unlock Recovery — Too Little, Too Late. After August 6, when the first tranche of 911.5 million shares was released, SpaceX's stock…

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SpaceX insiders won't be getting their hands on an extra 455.8 million shares. Not yet, anyway — and probably not anytime soon.

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The bonus tranche, worth roughly $80 billion, stayed locked after SpaceX's stock failed to hit the required price threshold ahead of the company's August 4 earnings report.

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To understand how SpaceX got here, you have to go back to June 16. That was the peak. From there, the stock fell 53% to an all-time low of $104.

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The drop of 38% from the peak to the initial unlock date on August 6 was steep enough to wipe out any realistic shot at the bonus tranche.

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IPO-underwriting banks had put a "Buy" rating on the stock. Didn't matter. The market moved the other way.

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Elon Musk wasn't quiet about any of this. By July, short-sellers had built up a $25 billion position against SpaceX — a massive bet that the stock would keep falling.

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His own shares aren't part of this conversation, at least not yet. They're locked until June 2027.

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See also: Riot Platforms Eyes 80% Stock Gain After $9.1 Billion Anthropic Deal

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And there's a broader story here about how SpaceX's IPO was structured. When the company went public, the supply of shares made available was deliberately limited.

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But that recovery came too late for the 455.8 million locked shares. The measurement window had already closed.

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The financial community's read on all this was mixed, honestly. Banks stayed optimistic. The market told a different story.

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More context: Crypto.com Kills DAT Stock Plan as CRO Drops 70% and Executives Walk

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