South African investors poured R179-million in just two days into SpaceX when it hit the public markets last week, with EasyEquities data revealing a frenzy of activity that has already made the stock the platform’s second-largest US dollar holding after Tesla.
Retail investors moved fast when SpaceX began trading. On the first day, Friday, 12 June, EasyEquities customers put R113-million (about US$7-million) into the stock. Another R55-million ($3.4-million) followed on the Monday, taking total value traded across the first two days to R179-million – a portion of it reflecting early profit-taking.
SpaceX’s debut was the largest initial public offering in Wall Street history, raising about $75-billion after 24 years as a private company. The stock priced at $135, opened at $150 and ended its first session almost 20% higher.
EasyEquities CEO Charles Savage called the local response “extraordinary”, noting that the most-traded stock in a typical week on the platform totals around R10-million. “SpaceX did over $7-million on day one. That’s insane.” The demand dwarfed the platform’s previous IPO record, the Boxer listing, which drew about R60-million.
The numbers, shared with TechCentral by Purple Group, the JSE-listed parent of EasyEquities, point to a level of retail enthusiasm that has reshaped the platform’s dollar wallet rankings. SpaceX is now the second-largest dollar holding on EasyEquities by aggregate value, behind only Tesla – and sits 13th across the entire dollar wallet when all investors are counted.
Top buy by value
“Thousands of clients invested,” said Purple Group chief marketing officer Carel Nolte, noting that SpaceX buyers skewed older and more male than the platform’s typical user. They had a median age of 37, against a platform median of 32, and 82% were men, compared with a platform-wide split of 59% male to 41% female – pointing to a more established cohort rather than first-time investors. The largest single purchase, of R1.8-million, was made by a woman.
In the five trading days since its 12 June debut, SpaceX was the top buy by value across every age group aged 30 and above, with the highest combined rand value coming from investors aged 40 to 49.
Nolte was careful to distinguish new registrations from platform activity. “We wouldn’t characterise it as a surge in new registrations directly attributable to the SpaceX listing,” he said, noting that EasyEquities adds 30 000 to 40 000 new clients a month regardless.
What the IPO drove was a sharp lift in engagement from the existing base: the number of new active dollar accounts – clients with a positive net asset value in their dollar wallet – rose to roughly three to four times the prior run-rate around the listing.
The broader dollar wallet metrics underline the scale. May 2026 was a record month for deposits at $22.8-million, a figure EasyEquities matched in the first 15 days of June alone. May was also a record for investing activity, with more than $73-million traded; by the halfway mark of June that had already reached $64-million, roughly 17% of it in SpaceX.
Ninety percent of the platform’s SpaceX investors had registered before the start of 2026, with the biggest cohort joining in 2020 and 2021.
Veteran market commentator David Shapiro, deputy chairman of Otto 1890 (the former Sasfin Securities), said the rush reflected a generational shift. “It demonstrates that the younger generation of investors in South Africa want to be part of the exciting growth in technology. They’re far more informed than we think,” he said.
OpenAI, Anthropic IPOs
“The JSE is old economy and holds no appeal. Nor are they swayed by patriotism. They’re not interested in the ETF pushers from the big houses. They want to own the companies that will shape their future. They want to be in control of where their money goes.”
Read: Prominent South African investor joins the board of SpaceX
Asked whether the OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs might produce a similar effect, Nolte said the company expects “a similar pattern, with it contributing to cross-product adoption as the key driver”. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media