Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is making a bold push into traditional capital markets, announcing that retail investors will be able to buy tokenized shares of initial public offerings at the offering price, beginning with the highly anticipated debut of Elon Musk’s space and satellite company, SpaceX.

The move marks another step in the convergence of digital assets and conventional finance, as crypto exchanges seek to position themselves as gateways to equity investing rather than solely cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Under the initiative, Bybit users will gain access to tokenized representations of IPO shares through xStocks, a tokenization platform operated by Payward. Registration and subscription for the SpaceX offering will run from June 7 through June 11, with allocations expected to be finalized between June 11 and June 12. Trading of the tokenized shares is scheduled to begin on Bybit’s spot market on June 12.

The arrangement allows investors to purchase exposure to IPO shares at the offering price without opening a traditional brokerage account, potentially bypassing one of the longstanding barriers that have often limited retail participation in high-profile listings.

The announcement comes as investor interest in SpaceX reaches extraordinary levels. The company, which began its IPO roadshow last week, has reportedly attracted roughly $150 billion in demand, about twice the $75 billion it is seeking to raise, underscoring the intense appetite for one of the world’s most closely watched technology offerings.

Bybit’s move follows a similar initiative by crypto exchange Kraken, which recently opened access to the SpaceX IPO for clients in more than 110 countries through the same xStocks infrastructure. The growing involvement of crypto platforms highlights how tokenization is increasingly being viewed as a mechanism for democratizing access to investments that were traditionally dominated by institutional investors and wealthy clients.

For the crypto industry, tokenized equities represent a potentially significant growth avenue at a time when digital asset exchanges are seeking new revenue streams beyond cryptocurrency trading. The model enables investors to gain exposure to stocks through blockchain-based instruments that can be traded around the clock and integrated into digital asset ecosystems.

The development also comes off as part of broader changes taking place across global capital markets. Financial institutions, exchanges, and technology firms have accelerated efforts to tokenize real-world assets, including stocks, bonds, funds, and private market securities, arguing that blockchain infrastructure can improve accessibility, settlement efficiency, and market liquidity.

SpaceX’s IPO is emerging as a key test case for that vision.

The company is targeting a valuation of about $1.75 trillion, making it one of the largest public offerings ever attempted. Strong demand has fueled expectations that the listing could trigger a wave of major technology IPOs, including anticipated debuts from leading artificial intelligence firms later this year.

Wall Street firms view 2026 as a potential breakout year for the U.S. IPO market after several years of subdued activity. A pipeline of large private technology companies, combined with renewed investor enthusiasm for AI, space technology, and digital infrastructure, has created favorable conditions for new listings.

For retail investors, platforms such as Bybit and Kraken are marketing tokenized IPO access as a way to participate in those offerings on terms that were previously difficult to obtain. However, it is not yet clear whether tokenized shares will become a mainstream feature of future IPOs, but the SpaceX offering is likely to serve as a closely watched indicator of how far blockchain-based capital markets have progressed from the industry’s crypto-centric roots.

Analysts expect the model to accelerate a broader shift toward tokenized securities, blurring the distinction between traditional stock exchanges and digital asset platforms while expanding access to some of the world’s most sought-after investment opportunities.

Nvidia and South Korea’s SK Group are expected to unveil a cooperation plan on Monday following a meeting in Seoul between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, a move that could further tighten ties between the world’s dominant AI chip designer and one of its most important memory suppliers.

The new collaboration further exposes one of the defining realities of the artificial intelligence boom, that the world still cannot produce enough critical hardware to satisfy surging demand.

While details of the partnership remain undisclosed, Huang used the occasion to deliver a stark message about the state of the global AI supply chain, warning that shortages of key components are likely to persist for years.

“The whole industry supply chain, everything from wafers to packaging to silicon photonics, everything’s in short supply because the demand is so high,” Huang told reporters in Seoul. “It is going to persist for several years.”

His comments provide one of the clearest indications yet that the infrastructure buildout supporting artificial intelligence remains constrained by manufacturing capacity rather than demand.

At the center of the expected partnership is likely to be high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the advanced memory technology that has become indispensable for training and running large AI models. SK subsidiary SK Hynix has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI revolution because it dominates the market for cutting-edge HBM chips used alongside Nvidia’s GPUs.

Modern AI accelerators require massive amounts of memory bandwidth to move data efficiently. As AI models grow larger and more complex, demand for HBM has exploded, turning memory manufacturers into critical players in the AI ecosystem.

Industry analysts estimate that Nvidia’s most advanced AI systems now require multiple stacks of high-bandwidth memory per processor, creating supply pressures that ripple across the semiconductor sector.

The result has been a prolonged shortage that has boosted profits at memory makers while creating challenges for cloud providers, enterprises, and AI startups racing to secure hardware.

The anticipated announcement comes as Nvidia expands beyond graphics processors into nearly every layer of the AI technology stack. Speaking ahead of Monday’s briefing, Huang said Nvidia is working across “many industries from AI supercomputers to CPUs to new PCs and robotics.”

That broadening strategy suggests any agreement with SK could extend beyond memory supply and potentially include cooperation in areas such as:

• AI infrastructure development.
• Advanced semiconductor packaging.
• Silicon photonics technologies.
• AI data center systems.
• Next-generation computing platforms.

The reference to silicon photonics rings a bell because the technology is viewed as essential for connecting massive AI clusters efficiently. As AI data centers scale to hundreds of thousands of processors, traditional electrical interconnects are becoming a bottleneck.

Additionally, the meeting highlights South Korea’s growing importance in the global AI supply chain. While Nvidia designs the chips powering the AI revolution, companies such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics provide the advanced memory that makes those systems viable. South Korea has therefore become a critical link in the race among the United States, China, and Europe to build AI infrastructure.

Maintaining close relationships with Korean suppliers is essential for Nvidia as demand continues to outstrip production. The company’s latest generation of AI hardware, including Blackwell systems and upcoming Rubin platforms, requires sophisticated packaging and memory integration technologies, areas where Korean manufacturers have established global leadership.

Huang’s warning reinforces a growing consensus across the technology sector that AI demand is accelerating faster than manufacturing capacity.

The shortages extend far beyond memory chips.

Advanced semiconductor wafers, chip packaging facilities, networking equipment, optical interconnects, and power infrastructure are all experiencing bottlenecks as hyperscalers, governments, and enterprises pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure.

The consequence is that companies throughout the supply chain are enjoying unprecedented pricing power and investment opportunities.

Nvidia has repeatedly stated that it has secured sufficient supply to support robust growth. However, Huang’s comments suggest that even with long-term supply agreements and strategic partnerships, demand continues to exceed available capacity.

Against that backdrop, any deeper partnership with SK Hynix could help Nvidia secure access to critical memory components while accelerating the deployment of future AI systems. The stronger alignment with Nvidia is also expected to help SK Hynix further cement its position as one of the most strategically important companies in the global AI supply chain.