A very interesting situation is unfolding involving Elon Musk’s company and its bitcoins. SpaceX is preparing for a monumental IPO, and it has 8,285 BTC set aside that could turn into a pretty annoying accounting issue in the coming quarters.

According to reports, the rocket company is expected to file a confidential registration with the SEC as early as March, targeting a June listing that would be the biggest in history—an evaluation above US$1.75 trillion, raising up to US$50 bilhões. That would surpass Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record. But buried inside this massive IPO is this bitcoin position, which is sending very clear signals of volatility.

The numbers are a bit tense to keep track of. In December, when Elon Musk’s company’s BTC position made the news, it was worth about US$780 million with bitcoin near US$92,500. Then in February it fell to about US$650 million. Now it’s around US$545 million, even though the company hasn’t sold a single coin. That’s a drop of US$235 million in three months just because BTC’s price fell from US$92,500 to the current US$72,930.

And here’s the problem: when SpaceX’s S-1 comes out, it will show paper losses related to bitcoin for any period in which BTC has fallen. Future quarterly reports will carry that volatility regardless of whether the company buys or sells. It’s basically unavoidable.

Tesla has been through this and knows exactly how it feels. Musk’s automaker recorded hundreds of millions in accounting losses during the previous downturns, even without moving the position. The difference is that Tesla has US$94.8 billion in revenue and gross profit of US$17 billion, so a few million in paper losses don’t impact it that much. SpaceX might be in the same situation, but this is the company’s first public disclosure during one of bitcoin’s most severe corrections in years.

What’s interesting is that the rocket company’s BTC wallet hit a peak near US$2 billion at the end of 2021, plunged in 2022, and has been fluctuating between US$400 and US$800 million ever since. Unlike Tesla, which sells and buys back, the data shows that SpaceX simply holds. It seems to be a long-term strategy, with no short-term trading. But investors entering this historic IPO will need to deal with bitcoin volatility showing up on the balance sheets every quarter.