Judgment Day Has Arrived for SpaceX, With Up to $99 Billion in Selling Pressure Waiting in the Wings

Elon Musk's company rewrote record books over the last eight weeks with Wall Street's largest-ever initial public offering (IPO).

SpaceX's staggered and accelerated share-unlock schedule enables select insiders to begin selling their shares on the second trading day after the company's first earnings report as a public company.

SpaceX's historically low float may exacerbate the flood of insider selling pressure that can weigh on the stock through mid-December.

Eight weeks ago, on June 12, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) and space infrastructure goliath rewrote history. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) (NASDAQ: SPCX) raised more capital than any initial public offering (IPO) before it, $85.7 billion (including the underwriters' overallotment), and quickly galloped to a nearly $3 trillion valuation in its first week as a public company.

However, the retail investor buzz that preceded SpaceX's debut has since faded -- and so has SpaceX's stock. The company's shares have plunged 52% below their all-time intraday high, as of the end of July, and things may be about to get a whole lot worse .

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SpaceX's IPO was nontraditional in several respects. It was the largest public debut in Wall Street's history, with a whopping 21 underwriters. It also featured an accelerated and staggered share-unlock schedule for early release-eligible insiders.

An insider is a high-ranking executive, board member, or early investor who may possess non-public information. Traditionally, companies going public prevent insiders from selling their shares for the first 180 calendar days to ensure that they're not taking advantage of early IPO gains or retail investor buzz.