SpaceX shares fell more than 16% on June 22, closing at $154.6 and cutting the company’s market value to $2.04 trillion. The slide continued in after-hours trading, where the stock touched $147.6 and dropped below its $150 first-day opening price. Just two weeks after listing, the stock has already erased a key reference level from its debut session.
The decline wiped out about $400.8 billion in market value in a single day, according to the source material, making it the second-largest one-day loss in U.S. corporate history. Elon Musk’s personal wealth also fell by about $152 billion. SpaceX has now posted three straight down days, and appetite for richly valued tech names has weakened at the same time.
ARK bought more than 210,000 shares into the sell-off
While much of the market stayed on the sidelines or headed for the exit, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood moved the other way. ARK bought 210,121 shares of SpaceX for about $3.25 million. The largest portion, 131,837 shares, went into the ARK Innovation ETF, while the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF added 43,486 shares.
After the purchase, ARK held a combined 1.63 million shares of SpaceX. Based on the closing price, that stake was worth nearly $300 million. The buy made ARK one of the clearest bullish outliers during a session defined by sharp selling.
Lock-up pressure from August could reshape supply
Short-term price weakness is only part of the story. Jeff Jacobson, a strategist at 22V Research, said 20% of insider holdings are set to unlock after the August earnings report. If the stock stays more than 30% above the IPO price — or above $175.5 — another 10% could be released as well. By early September, as much as 44% of insider holdings may enter the market.
SpaceX currently has a free float of only about 4.2%. If that lock-up wave unfolds as described, the tradable share count could jump by roughly 900%. That would leave the market dealing with a very different supply picture from the one investors see today.
Rate expectations are also hitting tech valuations
SpaceX is also trading inside a broader tech sell-off linked to rising rate expectations. The source notes that Alphabet, Amazon, and Broadcom each fell more than 4% in the prior session, while the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to 4.23%, the highest level in more than a year. If the Federal Reserve does move toward a rate hike, high-valuation technology stocks would face heavier discounting pressure.
That leaves SpaceX caught between two opposing forces: ARK adding on weakness, and a market still waiting for insider share unlocks and interest-rate pressure to work through prices.