Binance's Nvidia perpetual futures dropped more than 4% below the last US close as news of a board investigation into CEO Jensen Huang broke over the weekend, while traditional stock markets were closed. The move allowed crypto traders to react to the development hours before Wall Street reopened.
What Sparked the Nvidia CEO Probe
Nvidia's board launched an independent investigation into reports that CEO Jensen Huang was "the target of a foreign intelligence effort." A committee of independent directors will oversee the review with outside counsel, the company said.
The board sees no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, and it expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. The chief executive supports the review and will cooperate, according to the statement.
The probe follows a US intelligence memo regarding Huang's contacts with an executive at Nvidia customer Megaspeed. The memo claims China's main spy agency recruited her. Additionally, three House committee chairs have asked Huang for a closed-door briefing.
Binance Led Weekend Stock Perps Trading
Binance's NVDAUSDT contract fell as much as 4.2% below Friday's US close, according to Binance Research. Traders thus reacted to the Nvidia CEO probe hours before Wall Street could.
Binance also ranked first in Nvidia perpetual volume over 24 hours, with $360.35 million, equal to 44% of the top eight venues. Open interest reached $90.57 million, or 30.1% of the group, the team says. Volume jumped 1,070% from the previous 24 hours.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) seized on the move. "Tokenized stocks trade 24/7, giving you an edge on news over the weekend," he wrote on X.
Strictly speaking, these contracts are perpetual futures, not tokenized shares. They track Nvidia's price, but holders do not own the stock.
Still, stock perps have grown fast on crypto exchanges. Centralized venues traded $665 billion in stock perpetual futures in August alone, and chip stocks drove much of that volume. Meanwhile, tokenized stocks took 11% of DEX trading in September.
For Nvidia, earnings on November 17 are the next test. Until then, the Nvidia CEO probe adds pressure to a stock already hit by the recent AI chip selloff.
