SpaceX shares opened on the Nasdaq at 11:46 a.m. Friday. Money poured in within seconds.
Twelve minutes later, thousands of Robinhood users were locked out. The demand didn't break the market - it broke one app.
SpaceX opened at $150 a share. That was up 11% from its $135 starting price.
The stock kept climbing, topping a $2 trillion value during the day. The debut also made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.
The stock didn't just rise, it leapt. That pulled in even more buyers, which fed the traffic.
As the biggest IPO ever, SpaceX was always going to draw enormous interest. The trouble landed right at the open, when the most orders tend to hit.
In the first hour, about 263 million shares changed hands. That came to roughly $42 billion in one hour.
Few systems are built for that kind of rush. Picture 263 million shares trying to squeeze through one phone app.
Around 11:58 a.m., the outage reports spiked. The tracking site Downdetector counted about 5,000.
Some users said they only got part of the shares they asked for. That gap can sting when prices are moving by the second.
Robinhood said it saw record traffic. That traffic left some customers with delays and patchy access.
The company posted the update on X. It said its core systems were back to normal by about 12:30 p.m.
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Robinhood was one of five brokers selling SpaceX shares to everyday investors. The others were Charles Schwab, Fidelity, SoFi and Morgan Stanley's E*Trade.
Those four didn't see the same trouble in the same window. So the problem looks like Robinhood's, not the market's.
Robinhood is smaller and newer than some of those names. Schwab and Fidelity have run trading systems for decades.
Those four stayed steady through the whole window. That made Robinhood's trouble stand out even more.
Robinhood's users also skew young and active. They tend to pile into a hot launch all at once.
When everyone taps buy in the same minute, the system feels it. That is what happened here.
SpaceX put only about 4% of its shares up for trading. That thin supply met huge demand.
The result is a setup for wild price swings in the days ahead. A few buyers can move a thin stock a lot.
SpaceX options begin trading next week, which could bring another rush. Brokers will want their systems ready this time.
The fix came within about half an hour. Still, half an hour is a long time during a launch like this.
For Robinhood, the outage is a black eye on a big day. The traffic was historic, and so was the stumble.
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