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Crypto traders’ chip-stock perpetuals lose about $52 million in 10 minutes while Wall Street was shut
Summary
About $51.6 million in leveraged perpetual-futures positions tied to chip stocks and semiconductor ETFs were liquidated in a 10-minute span on Saturday while U.S. stock markets were closed, CoinDesk and TokenPost reported citing CoinGlass data; Crypto Briefing reported the same total.
Traders betting on higher prices took most of the hit — about $38.1 million, or 73.8%, per TokenPost and Crypto Briefing — with contracts on the 3x-leveraged SOXL fund liquidated for about $12.7 million, followed by SanDisk at about $10.8 million and SK Hynix at roughly $10.7–$10.8 million.
CoinDesk, citing a trade review by Tread.fi CEO David Jeong, said the selling began on Binance with large SanDisk and Micron sell orders at 21:21:59 UTC and hit Hyperliquid, where Trade XYZ lists stock-tracking contracts, less than a second later.
Because the contracts trade around the clock, weekend prices were set by crypto traders rather than live share quotes, which return when U.S. markets reopen Monday, CoinDesk said.
Outlets differ on timing: CoinDesk and TokenPost put the flush at 21:22–21:32 UTC on Saturday, Oct. 17 (5:22–5:32 p.m. ET), while Crypto Briefing dated it Oct. 18 between 05:22 and 05:32 UTC.
Key facts
- CoinDesk reported about $51.6 million in positions tied to chip stocks and semiconductor funds were force-closed between 21:22 and 21:32 UTC, per CoinGlass, with about $38 million from traders betting on higher prices.
- TokenPost said about $38.1 million in longs and roughly $13.5 million in shorts were liquidated, and listed SOXL (~$12.7 million), SNDK (~$10.8 million), SK Hynix’s SKHY and SKHYNIX tickers combined (~$10.7 million), SOXS (~$9.1 million) and Micron-linked MU (~$4.4 million).
- CoinDesk said roughly 10 addresses opened bets against six chip-linked contracts on Hyperliquid within 1.8 seconds, and that Binance handled about $21.9 million of SanDisk trading in the first minute versus $3.1 million on Trade XYZ.
- CoinDesk said Trade XYZ’s rules let trading on the platform set its own reference prices until outside stock quotes come back, and that memory-chip shares were already coming off a rough week as investors weighed new competition from Chinese chipmaker CXMT.
- Crypto Briefing said no single catalyst was identified in immediate reports, that outlets including KuCoin and Odaily relayed the figures, and that a leveraged SOXL perpetual stacks borrowed exposure on top of a fund built to deliver three times a semiconductor index’s daily move.