TLDR
- Robinhood saw “record-breaking” traffic on Friday after SpaceX (SPCX) began trading on Nasdaq
- Around 5,000 outages were reported at Robinhood as of 11:58 AM ET, with latency and intermittent issues
- Issues reportedly cleared up by 12:30 PM ET
- SpaceX closed up 19.22% on its first trading day at $160.95, pushing its market cap past $2 trillion
- HOOD stock closed up 1.04% at $93.19 on Friday
SpaceX made its long-awaited public markets debut on Friday, and Robinhood’s platform buckled under the weight of it.
The trading app reported “record-breaking” traffic in the hours after SpaceX (SPCX) started trading on Nasdaq at around 11:47 AM ET. Around 5,000 outages were reported on Downdetector as of 11:58 AM ET, with customers hitting latency and intermittent issues in those first chaotic minutes.
Robinhood posted on X confirming the disruption. The issues reportedly cleared by 12:30 PM ET.
HOOD stock closed at $93.19 on Friday, up 1.04% on the day.
Robinhood was one of several brokerages — including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, SoFi Technologies, and Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade — offering SpaceX stock to retail customers. Other platforms did not appear to experience the same issues, according to Downdetector.
SpaceX Opens Strong, Closes Even Stronger
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share, with 555.56 million shares offered. It opened around 11% higher at $150, and by afternoon was trading up over 25%.
It closed its first day up 19.22% at $160.95. That pushed SpaceX’s market cap past $2 trillion and, according to reports, made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
SpaceX only made about 4% of its total stock available in the IPO. That limited float is a key reason for the sharp swings seen on day one.
In just the first hour of trading, around 263 million shares changed hands — roughly $42 billion worth of SpaceX stock, per Nasdaq data.
The frenzy also lifted related names. Powerlaw Corp. (PWRL), a closed-end fund with SpaceX as its largest holding at roughly 19% of net assets, surged in pre-market trading Friday.
Where Robinhood Stands Now
HOOD has a market cap of $83.92 billion. Its 52-week high sits at $153.86, with a low of $63.52.
Over the past 12 months, the stock is up 28.36%. Year to date, it’s down 19.11%, and currently trading close to its annual low.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings put HOOD in long-term consolidation, with medium and short-term upward movement.
The platform issues on Friday were short-lived, but they came on one of the most-watched trading days in recent memory. Robinhood has faced scrutiny over platform outages during high-volume events before.
HOOD closed the regular session Friday at $93.19, up 1.04%.
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