A weekend sell-off in the Nasdaq 100–linked perpetual futures market on EdgeX caused nearly $13 million in liquidations, underscoring the risks of trading equity-index perps during closures of traditional markets.
On Saturday, a newly established wallet executed a six-hour time-weighted average price (TWAP) order to short 398 XYZ100 contracts, valued at around $10 million, as indicated by on-chain data from Hypurrscan.
This sell pressure led to a drop of more than 3.5% in XYZ100 within minutes, triggering a series of liquidations.
Liquidations are the automatic closure of a leveraged position initiated by a broker or exchange when a trader’s losses have reduced their collateral to an inadequate level for maintaining the position.
Blockchain records show that one trader lost about $7.4 million in long positions, while another experienced a liquidation of $2.7 million, bringing the total market liquidations to roughly $13 million.
Numerous traders on X questioned whether the market was susceptible to manipulation during off-hours, noting that XYZ100 declined nearly 4% over the weekend without significant macro or equity news. Others asserted that such fluctuations are an intrinsic risk of trading equity-linked crypto perps outside of regular market hours.
“On weekends, you’re not trading the Nasdaq anymore,” one trader stated. “You’re trading whoever possesses the most capital on a thin order book.”
EdgeX has swiftly emerged as one of the largest platforms for perpetual futures trading. As per DefiLlama data, the platform processed approximately $167 billion in perp trading volume last month, often competing closely with major rivals like Aster and Hyperliquid.
This particular liquidation wave highlights the increasing demand for tokenized equity products, while also illustrating the dangers of trading on products that replicate the price of a closed market.
