Nearly $52 Million in Chip-Stock Bets Vanished During a Ten-Minute Weekend Sell-Off

Table of Contents

• You might want to know
• Main Topic
• Key Insights Table
• Afterwards...

You might want to know

• How could chip-stock bets be liquidated while the U.S. stock market was closed?
• What might Saturday’s crypto-market prices reveal when U.S. markets reopen Monday?

Main Topic

A sharp wave of selling erased nearly $52 million in leveraged positions tied to chip stocks and semiconductor funds in just 10 minutes on Saturday, even though Wall Street was closed and the underlying shares were not trading. The episode highlights how contracts linked to equities can move on cryptocurrency platforms outside traditional market hours—and how quickly leveraged traders can face forced liquidation when prices turn against them.

The liquidations took place through perpetual futures: contracts designed to track the price of an asset but traded around the clock on crypto exchanges. These instruments let traders take positions linked to stocks on a Saturday night, when ordinary U.S. share trading is unavailable. They can also use borrowed funds to make a larger position than their deposit alone would allow. That leverage magnifies both potential gains and losses.

When losses consume a trader’s deposited collateral, the exchange may automatically close the position. This process is known as liquidation. Forced closures can add further selling pressure: when one leveraged bet is closed, the resulting price movement may bring another trader’s position closer to its own liquidation threshold. In a fast-moving market, that sequence can contribute to a rapid cascade.

CoinGlass data showed that about $51.6 million in positions tied to chip stocks and semiconductor funds were force-closed between 21:22 and 21:32 UTC. Traders who had bet on prices rising accounted for about $38 million of the total. In other words, most of the liquidated positions were bullish bets caught on the wrong side of the sudden decline. The reported liquidation window lasted just 10 minutes, and the total was nearly $52 million.

The largest individual impact among the listed instruments involved SOXL, a fund that triples the daily moves in chip shares. It saw about $12.7 million in liquidations. SanDisk and SK Hynix contracts followed, with about $10.8 million each. These figures indicate that the episode affected both leveraged fund exposure and contracts linked to individual semiconductor companies.

The selling reportedly began on Binance. David Jeong, chief executive of trading firm Tread.fi, reviewed the trading activity and said he placed the first large SanDisk and Micron sell orders on Binance at 21:21:59 UTC. Less than a second later, orders appeared on Hyperliquid, a crypto exchange where Trade XYZ lists contracts that track stocks. Roughly 10 addresses opened bets against six chip-linked contracts within 1.8 seconds.

Trading activity during the opening minute differed across platforms. Binance recorded about $21.9 million of SanDisk trading in that first minute, compared with $3.1 million on Trade XYZ. These amounts describe trading activity in the specified contracts and period; they do not represent confirmed trades in the underlying SanDisk shares, which were not trading on the U.S. stock market at that time.

The broader context was already unsettled for memory-chip shares. They were coming off a rough week as investors assessed new competition from Chinese chipmaker CXMT. That concern formed part of the backdrop, but the Saturday price action occurred while the traditional stock market was closed. Consequently, the contracts had no live share quote to follow during the sell-off.

Without an active underlying stock price, weekend trading in these instruments was driven by activity among crypto-market participants. Traders were responding to one another’s orders and to the prices generated by the contracts themselves, rather than to current trades in the actual shares. Trade XYZ’s rules allow activity on its platform to establish its own reference prices until outside stock quotes become available again.

This distinction matters when interpreting weekend prices. A contract may be designed to track a stock, but when the stock is not trading, the relationship cannot be checked against a contemporaneous exchange price. The contract can still move as buyers and sellers reassess risk, respond to news, or react to activity on other platforms. Its weekend price therefore reflects the market for the contract during those hours—not necessarily the price at which the underlying share would have traded on a conventional exchange.

External stock quotes are expected to return when U.S. markets open Monday. That reopening will provide a reference point for comparing the weekend contract prices with actual trading in the shares. It should help show how far Saturday’s prices strayed from where the underlying stocks ultimately trade once regular market quotations resume. Until then, the weekend moves remain evidence of trading in linked contracts, rather than a direct reading of live share prices.

The episode also illustrates the specific risks of combining round-the-clock markets with leverage. Around-the-clock access allows traders to take positions when stock exchanges are shut, but it does not guarantee that the contracts will have a reliable live reference price throughout the weekend. Leverage can magnify the consequences of price moves, while automatic liquidation can turn a paper loss into a forced trade. When positions are concentrated and liquidity shifts quickly, a short burst of selling may affect many traders in a compressed period.

For observers, the key points are the scale, speed, and market setting of the event. About $51.6 million in positions were closed in a short interval; about $38 million came from bets on rising prices; and the trading occurred in contracts that continued operating while the underlying stock market was shut. Those details explain why the event is notable without implying that the same amount of actual chip-company shares was sold on Saturday.

The source publication also provides a disclosure concerning its ownership and editorial policies. CoinDesk describes itself as an award-winning outlet covering the cryptocurrency industry and says its journalists follow a strict set of editorial policies intended to protect integrity, editorial independence, and freedom from bias. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets, and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.

Key Insights Table

Afterwards...

The next important comparison will come when U.S. markets reopen Monday and live share quotes again provide an external reference for the stock-tracking contracts. That comparison can clarify whether the weekend prices closely anticipated the reopening or moved substantially away from the underlying shares. In the meantime, the event serves as a reminder that continuous trading does not mean continuous access to an underlying market price. For traders and observers alike, understanding the contract’s reference-price rules, leverage, and liquidation mechanics is essential when assessing moves that occur while traditional exchanges are closed.