Karla Barker 
On-chain Nvidia perpetual futures opened the week with a clear short bias, and Nasdaq traders got the message. On HIP-3, NVDA was aggressively sold while official markets were closed. The tokenized ticker traded at $186.64 in pre-market hours, down from a range above $200, according to the report. More than a day of concentrated selling volume added pressure before the opening bell.
Weekend price discovery turns negative
On Hyperliquid, the xyz:NVDA perpetual futures against USDC slid to the $178 range, with a local low near $175. The contract then bounced as buying volume returned. Trading activity spiked after the report about founder Jensen Huang. Hourly volume jumped from about $3.1M to $115M immediately after the investigation news. Open interest stood near $128M on November 9. That is small next to some equity or commodity contracts, but NVDA still ranked among the top 10 most traded contracts, just behind SanDisk. Swimmer Finance said it will keep listing NVDA despite the volatility.
Scandal adds to semiconductor pressure
The report tied the selling to news about Huang’s affair with Alice Huang and an investigation into spying for China. NVDA now faces immediate headline risk and a broader deflation in AI and semiconductor stocks. The stock is about 6% lower than a year ago, wiping out its previous peak. Polymarket bets give a 24% probability that Huang is ousted as CEO by the end of 2026. Upcoming events could matter more than the weekend move: a Congress hearing on November 11, Q3 earnings on November 17, and a closed-door Congress hearing on November 18.
Whales lean short as crypto feels the spillover
Large traders on Hyperliquid are positioned for more weakness. One whale shorted NVDA with 10x and held more than $128K in unrealized gains. The same trader also shorted BTC with 30x, carrying over $200K in unrealized gains. Another position worth over $9.3M showed about $1.23M in unrealized profit. Ten of the 19 whales tracked on Hyperliquid were short NVDA, while long positions were smaller and mostly underwater. The spillover hit crypto too. BTC fell to a local low of $73,600 as NVDA dropped, and the move triggered another round of liquidations. After the Democratic Party flipped the midterms with a Senate majority, the report said scrutiny could increase for Binance, Tether, and World Liberty Financial. For now, the perp market is treating the weekend selling as a warning, not a final verdict.