The SpaceX Gold Rush: Is DXYZ the Best Way for Retail Investors to Ride Elon Musk’s $2 Trillion IPO Wave?

The search for retail-accessible SpaceX exposure has become one of the hottest corners of the market, and few names have captured investor attention quite like Destiny Tech100 (NYSE: DXYZ). The closed-end fund has effectively become a publicly traded proxy for some of the world’s most coveted private technology companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Revolut. For investors who cannot access private markets directly, DXYZ offers something rare: liquid exposure to Silicon Valley’s most valuable unicorns through a standard brokerage account. The question is whether that access is worth the price investors are currently paying.

At the center of the DXYZ story is SpaceX. The Elon Musk-led aerospace and satellite giant has become one of the most sought-after private companies on Earth as excitement builds around a potential IPO that could reportedly value the company between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion. DXYZ currently allocates roughly 14%-16% of its portfolio to SpaceX-related holdings depending on valuation timing and underlying vehicles. That makes it one of the largest publicly traded retail proxies for SpaceX available today.

The appeal is obvious. Retail investors have almost no direct ways to gain meaningful SpaceX exposure before an IPO. Traditional venture capital funds are largely reserved for accredited investors and institutions. DXYZ changes that dynamic by packaging late-stage private tech investments into a publicly traded structure. In many ways, the fund is attempting to democratize venture capital investing for retail investors.

But the story becomes more complicated once investors look beneath the surface.

DXYZ is not a pure SpaceX fund. In fact, SpaceX only represents about one-sixth of the portfolio. The fund also holds meaningful exposure to Anthropic, OpenAI-linked investments, fintech companies like Stripe and Revolut, and a variety of other emerging technology names spanning AI, defense, software, biotech, and infrastructure. Management ultimately intends to expand the portfolio toward roughly 100 holdings over time.

That diversification creates both positives and negatives.

The bull case is that DXYZ is not simply a SpaceX trade. It is effectively a basket of elite private technology companies that could collectively benefit from the AI boom, defense spending growth, fintech adoption, and future IPO activity. Anthropic alone represents a major AI growth story as one of OpenAI’s primary competitors, backed by Amazon and Google. OpenAI exposure gives investors indirect access to the most influential AI company in the world outside of Nvidia. If several of these companies eventually IPO successfully, DXYZ could potentially benefit from multiple liquidity events rather than depending solely on SpaceX.

The bear case is that investors specifically buying DXYZ for SpaceX exposure may not actually want the additional baggage. Some investors would prefer concentrated exposure to SpaceX itself rather than a venture-style portfolio filled with companies that may or may not eventually succeed. The broader the portfolio becomes, the smaller the relative impact SpaceX will have on overall returns.

Valuation is where things become especially controversial.

DXYZ frequently trades at a massive premium to its net asset value (NAV), which many analysts consider the fund’s single biggest risk. As of March 31, 2026, Destiny reported NAV of approximately $24.56 per share, while the stock recently traded closer to the upper $40s and as high as $71 on May 11. That implies investors were paying nearly 2x NAV for the underlying assets. In simple terms, investors were paying roughly $47-$50 for assets worth closer to $25 on paper.

That premium introduces enormous volatility risk.

If enthusiasm surrounding SpaceX or AI cools, DXYZ’s premium could collapse quickly even if the underlying holdings remain fundamentally strong. Investors already saw this dynamic play out repeatedly over the last year, with the fund experiencing violent swings including rallies above 30% and selloffs exceeding 25% in short periods. DXYZ plunged more than 80% during prior speculative unwind periods before rebounding again amid renewed SpaceX IPO hype.

Another concern involves the structure of some holdings. Certain investments are held through SPVs, or special-purpose vehicles, rather than direct equity ownership. That structure has drawn scrutiny, particularly around Anthropic and OpenAI exposure. Both companies maintain strict rules around share transfers and ownership rights, creating uncertainty about how these investments may ultimately behave in liquidity events or regulatory reviews.

Fees also matter here — perhaps more than many investors realize.

DXYZ carries one of the highest expense structures in the ETF and closed-end fund world. The management fee itself sits around 2.5%, but total expenses have approached roughly 4.5%-5% annually once operational, legal, listing, marketing, and investment-related expenses are included. That is extraordinarily high relative to traditional ETFs.

To put that into perspective, a typical broad-market ETF may charge 0.03%-0.20% annually. Even many actively managed thematic ETFs charge less than 1%. DXYZ’s fee structure means the fund must materially outperform simply to overcome its own expense burden. Over long periods, high fees can significantly erode returns, particularly if the underlying private-company valuations stagnate.

Still, the fund’s supporters argue that traditional ETF comparisons miss the point. DXYZ is not attempting to replicate the Nasdaq. It is providing access to assets that retail investors otherwise cannot easily own. That scarcity value is part of what investors are paying for.

For investors specifically seeking SpaceX exposure, DXYZ remains one of the cleaner public-market vehicles available today, alongside alternatives like ARK Venture Fund, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, and certain crossover funds with SPV structures. Some investors also use indirect exposure through Google given its stake in SpaceX. But among exchange-traded retail-accessible products, DXYZ has emerged as one of the highest-profile names tied to the SpaceX IPO narrative.

Ultimately, DXYZ is less of a traditional ETF investment and more of a speculative venture-capital proxy wrapped in a public stock. If SpaceX successfully IPOs near the rumored $1.75-$2 trillion valuation range, investor enthusiasm around DXYZ could reignite aggressively. But investors need to understand they are not buying direct SpaceX equity. They are buying a high-fee, highly volatile closed-end fund trading at a substantial premium to underlying assets with meaningful exposure to multiple private tech companies.

That makes DXYZ compelling — but also extremely risky. The upside can be explosive when private-market enthusiasm surges. The downside can be equally brutal when sentiment reverses. For investors who understand those tradeoffs and want liquid access to elite private technology companies, DXYZ may still be one of the more intriguing speculative vehicles in the market today.