SpaceX went public in June, but the governance fight that preceded the listing didn't end with the IPO. Elon Musk still controls the company through a dual-class share structure that gives him the vast majority of voting power, and the Bitcoin the company has held since 2021 remains beyond the reach of public shareholders.
The voting structure that survived the IPO
SpaceX has two classes of shares. Class A carries one vote per share, while Class B carries ten. Musk holds a large block of Class B shares, both directly and through trusts, and he reported sole voting and dispositive power over all of them as of June 30. There's no sunset clause on the arrangement, so the structure doesn't expire.
That didn't sit well with the Council of Institutional Investors, which asked Musk in June to move to a single share class before the listing. The company went ahead anyway. When Class B shares are sold to an outsider, they convert to Class A, stripping 90% of their voting weight. But as long as Musk holds them, his control is locked in.
The Bitcoin stash shareholders can't touch
SpaceX has held a significant amount of Bitcoin since 2021 and has never sold any of it. In its first quarterly report as a public company, the firm listed digital assets on its balance sheet. But public shareholders have no say over that position — the voting structure means Musk decides what happens to the crypto.
The timing is notable. Bitcoin's price has been volatile, and the company's decision to hold through the cycle has drawn attention. But for investors who bought the IPO, it's a non-voting matter.
A rocky start on the public market
The stock didn't have an easy debut. It fell sharply through July, then climbed in August after the company reported a big jump in revenue and the first lockup expiry passed. Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed a stake in the company, and the Grok AI unit reported a large quarterly loss.
Peter Schiff, a longtime crypto skeptic, has interpreted the rally as a warning sign for stocks and crypto. Whether that's right is anyone's guess, but the volatility is real.
What the next lockup tranches mean
More lockup expiries are coming in the next few months. Those will free up additional Class A shares for trading, which could add supply pressure. But they won't loosen Musk's voting control. The dual-class structure is designed to keep that intact, and there's no mechanism for shareholders to change it.
The question now is whether the market will keep rewarding the company's growth story, or whether the governance concerns will start to weigh on the stock. The next earnings report will be the first real test.
