So, Elon Musk says the reports are "false." That's his one-word verdict on the speculation that his rocket company, SpaceX, would exclude retail trading platforms Robinhood (HOOD) and SoFi (SOFI) from its initial public offering whenever that happens.
But here's the thing about financial rumors: sometimes they're wrong about the specific fact, but they point to a much bigger, much truer story. And the real story here isn't about who gets a piece of a future SpaceX IPO. It's about who's already driving a huge chunk of the trading in Musk's other, already-public company: Tesla.
Let's talk about Tesla's market. Tesla trades about 60 million shares on an average day. Across the whole U.S. stock market, retail investors—that's you and me, not big institutions—account for roughly 20% of trading activity. But Tesla isn't average. It skews higher, with closer to 25% of its volume coming from retail.
Do the math. Twenty-five percent of 60 million shares is about 15 million shares of Tesla stock changing hands between retail investors every single trading day. That's a lot of activity.
Now, where does all that retail flow go? A huge portion of it runs through apps. Robinhood has long dominated the high-frequency, app-based trading scene for popular stocks like Tesla. SoFi has been steadily building its own app-first investor base. Put them together, and a reasonable estimate is that Robinhood and SoFi handle a combined 35% to 40% of all that retail Tesla volume.
More math. If they're handling 35–40% of the 15 million daily retail shares, that means Robinhood and SoFi together are facilitating trades for about 5 to 6 million shares of Tesla every day. Compared to Tesla's total daily volume of 60 million shares, that's 8% to 10% of all the action. On busy days, that share comfortably moves above 10%.
This isn't some marginal, background noise. This is directional flow. When retail investors cluster around a stock—especially around earnings, product announcements, or Musk's tweets—they can amplify price moves. The platforms that serve them aren't just spectators; they're part of the market's plumbing.
So, the whole debate about whether Robinhood and SoFi get "access" to a SpaceX IPO kind of misses the forest for one very specific, not-yet-planted tree. SpaceX, if it ever goes public, will likely be a tightly controlled affair. The company can probably pick and choose which brokers get to offer shares.
Tesla isn't like that. Tesla is already out there, trading in the open market. And in that market, retail platforms aren't asking for permission—they're already helping set the tone. Musk can shut down speculation about SpaceX's guest list with a single word. But the trading activity in Tesla shows he's already presiding over a market where the apps are very much in the room.
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