Retail investors from South Korea rushed into the SpaceX (SPCX) stock market at an unprecedented pace. As the analytical project Global Markets Investor notes, citing data from the Korea Securities Depository, on the first day of trading on June 12 they bought up the company's shares for $795.9 million.
Thus SpaceX became the most popular U.S. stock among Koreans in a single trading session: 14 million retail investors put their money specifically into SPCX. Demand proved so strong that purchases in a single day exceeded the three-month volumes of other popular securities.
The scale of the SpaceX frenzy
For comparison: net purchases by Korean investors over the previous three months amounted to $748.3 million for Micron Technology (MU) shares, $696.2 million for the Nasdaq 100 index fund (QQQ) and $694.5 million for Marvell Technology (MRVL) securities. SpaceX surpassed each of these positions in just one session.
In addition to the shares themselves, over the previous month retail investors put another $301 million into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) linked to SpaceX. This underscores just how widespread interest in Elon Musk's space company has become.
According to Global Markets Investor's estimate, nearly all market participants "piled in at the very same moment." The high demand for the shares among Koreans is also explained by the fact that local investors were effectively cut off from participating in the IPO itself — only the largest participants were able to acquire the securities.
Some analysts warn of risk
An alarming side of the frenzy is described by the analyst Crypto Rover. In his opinion, the SpaceX story could become a kind of "exit liquidity" for Koreans in market history, where early holders sell their assets to a new wave of buyers.
He backs up his view with the mechanics of the placement. SPCX shares rose 70% from the IPO price, but only about 4% of the securities are in free float, while the remaining 96% are locked up. Under these conditions, passive funds are forced to buy shares right when insiders are preparing for the unlock and the sale of their stakes as early as July–August.
Source: BeInCrypto
