Crypto exchanges got an early chance to price Nvidia’s weekend turmoil, and traders marked the chipmaker down hard. Binance’s NVDAUSDT perpetual and the NVDA market run by trade.xyz on Hyperliquid fell as low as $175.68 and $175.43 on Monday, about 6% below Nvidia’s Friday close of $186.64, before regular U.S. trading resumed. The slide followed Sunday’s news that Nvidia’s board had opened an investigation tied to chief executive Jensen Huang.
What set off the selling
Nvidia’s board said on Sunday it was “initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, will run it. “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” the board said.
Huang admitted to an affair in a memo to staff obtained by CNBC, and said he supports the review and “will cooperate fully.” The New York Times had reported last week that a memo circulated among senior U.S. policymakers alleged that a Chinese businesswoman was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to gather intelligence on Huang, The Block reported. Nvidia told CNBC that Huang “is committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption.”
How the weekend traded
AltcoinReporter pulled hourly data from Binance’s and Hyperliquid’s public APIs. Until Sunday evening, the market was close to asleep. In the 47 hours after Friday’s 21:00 UTC close, Binance’s contract stayed between roughly $187 and $189 and averaged about $1.7 million of volume an hour. Hyperliquid’s market averaged under $600,000 an hour.
That changed in the 20:00 UTC hour on Sunday. Binance’s contract fell from $187.88 to as low as $180.68, and $46.1 million changed hands in that hour alone. The busiest hour came at 01:00 UTC on Monday, with $109.1 million traded on Binance. A second leg lower in the 06:00 and 07:00 UTC hours produced the lows. From the start of the sell-off to about 08:10 UTC on Monday, the two markets handled roughly $458 million and $213 million in volume.
At that point Binance’s contract was at $177.29 and Hyperliquid’s at $176.92, both about 5% under Friday’s close.
The discount closed before the price did
Funding rates, the periodic payments that keep a perpetual near its reference price, tell a slightly different story from the chart. On Binance, the eight-hour funding settlement at midnight UTC was minus 0.189%, meaning short sellers paid longs as the contract traded below its index. On Hyperliquid, hourly funding hit minus 0.048% at 21:00 UTC on Sunday, with the market about 0.8% under its oracle price.
By Monday morning both had flipped. Binance’s 08:00 UTC settlement was plus 0.016%, and Hyperliquid’s funding had been slightly positive every hour since 02:00 UTC. The panic discount had gone, yet the price kept falling. An analyst quoted by The Block on Sunday night read deeply negative funding as a sign of crowded shorts and room for a rebound. On the data available Monday morning, that discount no longer existed.
Where the volume went
Binance Research said Binance ranked first among the eight platforms it tracks over the past 24 hours, with $360.35 million in Nvidia perpetual volume, or 44% of the total, and $90.57 million in open interest, or 30.1%. It did not name the other seven. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said that “tokenized stocks trade 24/7, giving you an edge on news over the weekend.”
A snapshot taken by AltcoinReporter at about 08:10 UTC on Monday showed open interest of about $97.7 million on Binance and about $118.4 million on the trade.xyz market, both valued at mark price. On that measure, the Hyperliquid market held more open positions than Binance’s.
These contracts do not hold Nvidia shares. They track a price and settle in stablecoins, which is how they trade through weekends when the stock cannot. Nvidia is among the companies that objected to tokenized versions of their shares on the planned OKX and ICE venue, as AltcoinReporter reported earlier this month. That objection list covers tokenized shares on that venue, not perpetual contracts elsewhere.
What to watch next
The real test is Monday’s U.S. session, with premarket trading from 09:00 UTC and the regular open at 14:30 UTC. If the stock opens near $176 to $177, the weekend perps will have done their job as an early price signal. A large gap in either direction would show how thin weekend liquidity can mislead. Further statements from Nvidia’s board, which said it will “provide further updates as appropriate,” are the other thing to watch.
FAQ
Why did Nvidia trade on crypto exchanges over the weekend? Binance and Hyperliquid list perpetual futures that track Nvidia’s share price and trade around the clock, unlike the stock itself.
How far did the Nvidia perps fall? The lows were $175.68 on Binance and $175.43 on Hyperliquid, about 6% below Friday’s $186.64 close. Both were near 5% lower at about 08:10 UTC on Monday.
Has Nvidia said its secrets were compromised? No. The board said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised and that its inquiry will examine all available information.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
