- Perpetual futures tied to Nvidia fell nearly 12% to $160.99 on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid as traders reacted to reports that the company’s board was preparing to remove CEO Jensen Huang, CoinDesk reported. Perps listed on Binance, OKX and Bybit posted similar losses. Nvidia’s Nasdaq-listed shares closed at $173 on Wednesday and dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading.
- Cumulative trading volume in Nvidia perpetual futures across exchanges surged to a record of more than $4 billion, according to Coinglass data cited by CoinDesk, with Binance accounting for 44% of that total. Nvidia perps are the largest traditional-finance-linked market on Hyperliquid by open interest and the fourth-largest market on the exchange overall, behind only bitcoin, ether and HYPE futures.
- HYPE-USDC perps on Hyperliquid led that venue’s open interest at $535 million as of CoinDesk’s writing. CoinDesk said the episode shows how much price discovery in a U.S. megacap is now happening on unregulated centralized and decentralized crypto venues, a pattern that also appeared earlier this year when weekend news about the Iran war sent traders to Hyperliquid to express views on oil, gold and equity indexes while traditional markets were closed.
- Bitcoin, which has at times shown a strong positive correlation with Nvidia, traded slightly weaker around $73,650, still inside its range of the past 48 hours. Nasdaq futures were down 0.75%, a partial reversal of Wednesday’s nearly 2% gain, CoinDesk said. The cash stock peaked at $243 on Oct. 6.
What Happened?
The Journal reported that Nvidia’s board was preparing to oust Huang and could meet as early as Wednesday, after a New York Times report alleged a second extramarital relationship, this time with an Nvidia executive. Huang has not been formally removed. Under the company’s bylaws, directors can remove him with or without cause by majority vote, but no final decision has been announced.
Why It Matters?
Crypto perps are giving a more aggressive read than the official after-hours print. A drop to about $161 on Hyperliquid, versus a $173 regular-session close and a decline of more than 7% in after-hours cash trading, suggests leveraged crypto traders are willing to price a deeper slide than traditional after-hours stock trading has yet shown. Record volume above $4 billion, with Binance handling close to half of it, also means this is no longer a niche sideshow: it is one of the main places the market is expressing a view on Huang’s future. Bitcoin’s relatively muted move around $73,650, meanwhile, shows the shock is still more of an Nvidia and Nasdaq story than a broad crypto risk-off.
What’s Next?
The next test is whether Thursday’s U.S. cash open validates the perp market’s deeper discount or snaps back toward the official after-hours level. Traders will watch open interest on Hyperliquid and Binance for signs that the $4 billion burst of volume was a one-night liquidation or the start of a longer positioning shift. A board decision, or the absence of one, will be the fundamental catalyst; the perps will remain the after-hours and weekend venue if the news keeps landing outside cash-market hours.
Affected Tickers and Coins: NVDA, Bitcoin, Ethereum
Source: CoinDesk
