SPAC sponsors have raised $11.7 billion this year against 13 announced mergers

"Raising the capital has proven easier than putting it to work," the Crowdfund Insider perspective said ^[11]. The dollars bear that out. In 2025, 144 SPAC IPOs raised $26.9 billion, an average near $187 million a vehicle ^[3][1]. Sponsors added $11.7 billion through early March 2026, the busiest start to a year since 2021, and announced 13 mergers over the same stretch ^[4][5]. Thirteen deals at the 2025 average trust size would take up about $2.4 billion, roughly a fifth of what came in ^[2].

The market valued five of the 13 above the cash in trust, which leaves eight at or below it ^[5][3]. A pre-merger SPAC share is a claim on a trust account, so a holder who thinks the combined company is worth less than the cash can take the cash ^[13]. That is how the 2021 cohort ended up delivering listings with the trust drained. Redemptions climbed. Companies stumbled after closing, and some lost their listings ^[12].

The vehicles are also larger than the deals they are said to be replacing. The 2025 average trust of about $187 million runs roughly 3.7 times $50 million ^[9]. Two-thirds of the 100 traditional IPOs priced in the first half of 2025 came in under that figure, according to Bloomberg data cited by Crowdfund Insider ^[2]. That works out at about 67 sub-$50 million deals in six months ^[7]. Underwriting costs do not scale down with the size of the raise, and research coverage has thinned ^[8].

Nasdaq's change is small in absolute dollars. Since January 2026 a new Capital Market listing under the net income standard has needed $15 million of unrestricted public float where $5 million used to do ^[1]. That is three times the bar, a $10 million increase ^[4]. That test measures the shareholder base, and the substitution case depends on whether the merger route faces it too. Crowdfund Insider does not say whether a company arriving through a SPAC merger must clear the same $15 million on the same standard.

Hold 2025 against the last cycle. SPAC Research counted 613 SPAC IPOs in 2021 raising $162.5 billion, an average of about $265 million ^[6][5], which makes 2025's total about a sixth of that year's ^[6]. Of the more than 400 former SPACs from the past six years still trading, nearly two-thirds are down more than 80%, according to SPAC Research data Bloomberg analyzed ^[7].

"SPACs have become the new microcap IPO, which makes their legitimacy the wrong question," the piece said ^[10]. What the evidence establishes is that traditional IPOs got smaller and SPAC formation got bigger. The substitution between the two is an inference from both, and it rests alongside the claim that the IPO window has not meaningfully reopened for smaller issuers ^[14]. One reading of the $11.7 billion is a formation calendar running ahead of a deal calendar that only opened in January, in which case 13 announcements will look thin in hindsight. Another is that eight deals valued at or below trust are buyers declining to pay for what is on offer, while founder shares, warrants and a deadline keep sponsors closing anyway ^[9]. I would take the second. A run of 2026 closings that keeps the trust largely intact and then trades above it would show me wrong.