On June 12, Eastern Time, SpaceX (SPCX) officially went public on NASDAQ with an IPO price of $135, closing its first day at $160.95, skyrocketing its market cap to $2.1 trillion. This was supposed to be Musk's moment of glory, but it turned into the most brutal 'graveyard' for retail traders in the crypto space—over half of the retail investors got precisely harvested by exchanges. The myth of RWA (Real World Asset tokenization) has been utterly shattered, marking 2026 as the year of the most ruthless 'cutting the grass' on retail! Today, Musk can play like this, but what about other companies? They sold at $135, leaving no meat on the bone for retail traders! Retail traders

1. Illusion of Celebration: Exchanges are painting a rosy picture, and the crypto community is frantically grabbing at 'space IPOs'

The hype around the SpaceX IPO is off the charts, with traditional institutions subscribing over $150 billion, double the fundraising target, leaving regular folks with no chance of getting a share. Top exchanges like Binance, Bybit, Bitget, Kraken, and Gate have sensed an opportunity, collectively promoting the slogan, "Invest from $100, retail can also get a piece of SpaceX's original stock."

Focusing on the "RWA tokenized stock narrative," claiming to tokenize stocks via SPV structure, holding on-chain and enjoying price increases while packaging the "top-tier IPOs only for the rich" as a perk for retail investors. The marketing was overwhelming: "An opportunity on par with Bitcoin," "Musk takes you to Mars," "Double your investment right after listing," leading many retail investors to throw cash in, some even going all-in, just waiting for the listing to reap rewards.

Two, shocking reversal: no allocations at all! Refunds also come with extra fees.

On June 12, the IPO hit, and reality slapped everyone hard—every exchange collectively "flopped," with 99% of retail investors getting not a single share!

- The core truth: The IPO allocations for SpaceX were fully taken up by top institutions and high-net-worth clients, with crypto channels having the lowest priority, getting no real shares at all; the so-called "tokenized stocks" are just IOUs with no equity and no collateral.

- Exchanges passing the buck:

- Bybit: Full refund, compensation "10% annualized reward" (just empty promises)

- Kraken: An average of only 4.2 shares per person, hardly worth mentioning

- Binance: Refund + shorting, air compensation to fool people

- Bitget: Refunds come with a deduction of several hundred dollars in fees, cleverly named "platform costs"

What's most infuriating is that the platform exploited the funds for over ten days, didn't provide any stocks, and now the refund comes with extra costs! Retail investors have nowhere to complain and can only suffer quietly.

Three, double whammy: hedging turned into massive losses, with spot and shorts losing on both ends.

Even worse than not getting stocks is the desperation of a bunch of "smart retail traders"—to lock in profits, they preemptively opened SPCX contracts in the crypto space to hedge, thinking they were guaranteed profits.

On the first day of trading, SPCX skyrocketed, and short positions instantly got liquidated with heavy losses; meanwhile, the promised spot stocks were nowhere to be found, resulting in total wipeout for shorts and zero for spot. Some folks lost hundreds of thousands in an instant, going back to square one overnight.

Four, the RWA myth collapses: the narrative built up for years vanished overnight

Previously, the crypto world crazily hyped RWA, claiming to "put real assets like US stocks and real estate on-chain, tokenizing to lower barriers and disrupt traditional finance." The SpaceX IPO was touted as the "divine battle of RWA," leading countless people to believe it and invest heavily.

But this incident stripped away the facade of RWA: the so-called "crypto stocks" are fundamentally just IOUs issued by the platform, with no real equity backing. When prices rise, the platform dodges responsibility; when they fall, retail bears the loss. Without underlying asset support, no matter how fancy the narrative, it’s all a scam. After this event, RWA is completely dead; no one dares to touch it anymore.

Five, Musk didn’t cut retail; it’s the crypto exchanges that did.

Stop falling for the narrative that "Musk is harvesting retail investors!" Musk himself holds 42%-50%, locked for 366 days, hasn’t sold a single share during the IPO, and isn’t cashing out. Only 4.2% of new shares were issued, all for fundraising to develop the business, with no direct ties to retail investors.

The real scythe is the major exchanges in the crypto world: fully aware that people won't get any allocations, they aggressively market to harvest traffic and settle funds, ultimately passing the blame with excuses like "no allocation" and "transaction fees," treating retail investors like fools.

Final advice

1. All RWA crypto stocks are traps, with no regulation and no real assets; the platforms can run off anytime. Stay away!

2. Don't expect retail to get into top-tier IPOs; traditional markets don’t even give you a chance, and the crypto space won't have free lunches either.

3. Low barriers to entry with high returns = scam; remember: free lunches don't fall from the sky, only scythes do!

The most ruthless harvesting in 2026, no doubt! Share this to warn your crypto friends; don’t let them end up with nothing!