21 May 2026: SpaceX Reveals $1.45 Billion Bitcoin Position as Thursday Markets Close Steady

Thursday’s crypto session has closed with more stability than the afternoon suggested, with Bitcoin settling around $77,700 and most major altcoins posting small but consistent gains through the evening hours. The headline of the day, however, came not from within the crypto markets but from a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission: SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus confirms that Elon Musk’s aerospace company holds 18,712 bitcoin on its balance sheet, a position worth roughly $1.45 billion at current prices and placing the company among the world’s largest public-company Bitcoin holders.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalisation stands at approximately $2.68 trillion as Thursday’s session closes, with Bitcoin’s dominance at 58.1 per cent. That dominance figure means that for every pound or dollar invested across all cryptocurrencies, more than half sits in Bitcoin alone. It has held at elevated levels throughout May, reflecting a tendency among investors to favour the market’s largest and most liquid asset during periods of broader uncertainty. Trading volume over the past 24 hours is around $82 billion, according to CoinGecko data. The Fear and Greed Index, which aggregates price momentum, trading volume, social media signals, and market surveys into a single sentiment score, sits at 29 tonight. That places it in Fear territory for the third consecutive session. The index stood at 25 two days ago and 27 yesterday, a modest but consistent improvement as prices have held steady.

Bitcoin is trading at approximately $77,700 tonight, or around £57,800, essentially unchanged over the past 24 hours and sitting broadly where it was when this afternoon’s Crypto Daily was published.

The day’s trading range of roughly $76,800 to $78,000 is narrow by recent standards, and Bitcoin has ended Thursday sitting in the middle of it. A 24-hour move of less than half a per cent to the upside barely qualifies as directional, but what it does confirm is that the $77,000 area, tested again during the afternoon session, has continued to hold as a floor rather than a ceiling. That floor has been tested and held repeatedly over the past two weeks.

For those watching Bitcoin’s monthly trajectory, the relevant reference point is $76,000. As this morning’s update noted, analysts at Fundstrat have described a May close above that level as the technical condition for confirming a new bull market phase. With around ten days remaining in May and Bitcoin sitting approximately $1,700 above that threshold tonight, the condition is achievable, though not assured. The market’s sensitivity to US macroeconomic data has been consistent this year, and any upside surprise on inflation before month end could put renewed pressure on risk assets.

Ethereum is trading at approximately $2,139 tonight, or around £1,590, a gain of less than 0.2 per cent over the past 24 hours.

The pattern mirrors Bitcoin’s: marginal positive territory, a narrow intraday range, and no specific catalyst driving the move. Ethereum’s seven-day performance tells a more challenging story, down around 7.4 per cent over that period compared with Bitcoin’s 4.9 per cent decline. That wider weekly underperformance reflects the current dominance dynamic. When Bitcoin’s share of the total market rises, as it has through May, it tends to do so at the expense of altcoins including Ethereum. The conditions that typically allow Ethereum to close that gap, a return of risk appetite and broader speculative interest, are not visibly present in tonight’s data.

Chainlink has gained around 1.9 per cent through Thursday’s session to trade at approximately $10, placing it among the stronger performers in the top 20 by market capitalisation at the close.

The context for Chainlink’s relative firmness is structural. Earlier this month, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, known as the DTCC and responsible for processing and settling the large majority of US securities transactions, announced it would integrate Chainlink’s Runtime Environment into a new platform called the Collateral AppChain. That platform, targeting a production launch in the fourth quarter of 2026 following a live transaction test in July, is designed to automate collateral valuation, margining, and settlement across global financial markets on a continuous basis. The DTCC is the settlement backbone of the US financial system, and a confirmed production integration of that kind sits in a different category from the partnerships most crypto protocols can point to. Chainlink needs a sustained close above $10.50 to technically confirm a new upward trend, but the DTCC integration provides a specific scheduled catalyst for traders to monitor.

Avalanche has posted a gain of around 2.1 per cent today, trading at approximately $9 at the close, placing it alongside Chainlink among the better-performing mid-cap assets of Thursday’s session.

Two pieces of institutional news have built a backdrop for Avalanche through May. Bitwise, a US-based digital asset manager, launched the first dedicated Avalanche exchange-traded fund earlier this month. The CME Group has also disclosed plans to launch AVAX futures, placing Avalanche alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and SUI in the small group of assets with CME-listed futures products. ETF and futures listings do not guarantee price gains, but they expand the set of participants who can access an asset in a regulated way, which tends to improve liquidity and can reduce the volatility associated with more heavily retail-driven markets.

The most significant disclosure of Thursday’s session came from a regulatory filing rather than any market catalyst. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company, published its S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, as it prepares for what analysts expect to be one of the largest public offerings in US history. The filing reveals that SpaceX holds 18,712 bitcoin on its balance sheet, with a total cost basis of around $661 million. That implies an average acquisition price of roughly $35,300 per coin. At current prices, the position is worth approximately $1.45 billion, leaving SpaceX sitting on an unrealised gain of close to $800 million.

SpaceX first disclosed a bitcoin position in 2021, when it purchased 25,724 BTC. The current position is smaller, meaning some bitcoin was sold between 2021 and the end of 2024, after which the S-1 shows no further changes. The filing places SpaceX seventh among publicly listed companies globally in terms of bitcoin held on the balance sheet. For context, Tesla holds approximately 11,500 BTC on its own balance sheet; both companies are associated with Elon Musk as chief executive, though they are separate legal entities with independent treasury strategies.

For crypto markets, the immediate price implication is limited: the bitcoin was purchased years ago and the position has been static. What the disclosure does is reinforce the picture of bitcoin as an asset that large, well-capitalised, non-financial companies are comfortable holding as a balance sheet reserve. That trend has been building since the early 2020s and continues to extend into new industries and geographies.

Three things are worth watching over the next few trading sessions. The first is Bitcoin’s May close. With around ten days remaining, Bitcoin needs to hold above $76,000 at the 31 May settlement to meet the technical condition Fundstrat analysts have described as bull market confirmation. That level sits roughly $1,700 below tonight’s price, leaving room but no certainty, particularly if US economic data due next week surprises to the upside on inflation. The second is the bitcoin options market ahead of the 29 May expiry on Derivit, where open interest in bitcoin options has recently exceeded that tracked in BlackRock’s IBIT exchange-traded fund. Traders have been building $82,000 call positions for that expiry, a concentration that can create conditions where market makers buy bitcoin to hedge as prices approach that level, potentially amplifying any upward move. The third is the overnight Asian session. With Thursday’s London close producing no clear directional signal, the Tokyo and Singapore opens will be the first test of whether the modest positive momentum visible across altcoins today carries through, or fades as it has in several sessions this month.

Crypto Daily is Cristoniq’s evening market close summary for cryptocurrency, published nightly for informational purposes only. Nothing here is financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.