Astronaut costumes, teenage crypto millionaires, and a $300 million bet: Scenes from the SpaceX IPO

The crowd outside the Nasdaq on Friday morning skewed young, male, and anxious.

George Manchin, a 22-year-old prop trader from Hong Kong, had put in for “a little bit” of SpaceX stock—“like a car, but it’s gonna be more than a car now.” Behind him, Hemanth Golla, an early investor through his venture fund High Circle Capital, is sitting on $300 million worth.

“It’s very exciting,” Golla told Fortune at the scene outside Nasdaq in Manhattan. “Not just monetarily, but also it’s a historic moment. I’ve been a big fan of Elon, so it’s been an amazing journey so far.”

There were more than two people in astronaut outfits, bouncing around between different press interviews; there were teenage “retired crypto traders” with hired cameramen talking about the IPO. The SpaceX IPO, the biggest in history, is a rare market event that doubles as a tourist attraction. The sidewalk outside the Nasdaq on Friday seemed to contain a microcosm of the entire psychology of this market: early money waiting for its exit window; retail money rushing in; and a broad, cheerful consensus that the company is overvalued—but it doesn’t really matter. 

“Everyone knows it’s overvalued, but do they care?” said Jasper Howard, a 19-year-old who calls himself the “Clavicular of Crypto,” referring to the notorious looksmaxxing streamer. He said he was “retired” from crypto, but still streaming.

“We k...