Overview
- South Korean banks have processed roughly $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in dollar purchases tied to pre-IPO allocations for SpaceX, and the bulk of that demand is reported to be near-complete.
- The clearance removed a near-term source of downward pressure on the won, which traded around 1,524.1 per dollar after the report and had fallen to a 17-year low in recent weeks.
- Local institutions and wealthy retail clients bought dollars through brokerages to secure allocations, exposing the relatively shallow dollar-won spot market to concentrated flows.
- The Bank of Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service have opened joint inspections of major FX banks, a step regulators say is meant to guard against attempts to profit from or manipulate exchange rates.
- Investors and markets are awaiting SpaceX's imminent IPO pricing and final allocations, which will determine any remaining dollar demand from Korean buyers and the next wave of FX flows.