SpaceX Pre-IPO Market Flash-Crashes 45% on Hyperliquid (UPDATED)

The risks of trading pre-IPO markets were highlighted in the most recent SpaceX flash crash.

Through HIP-3, Hyperliquid enables independent builders to construct markets that tap into the exchange’s existing architecture and liquidity. This has made it possible for venues to build tokenized stocks and even “pre-markets” for stocks that have yet to conduct an initial public offering.

Ventuals is one such exchange that allows users to trade pre-markets for popular companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX.

Trading under the SPACEX-USDH pair on Hyperliquid, the pair reflects what traders believe is a fair valuation of Elon Musk’s company before it went public, and it has allowed speculation for a long time now, regularly attracting $2.9 million in open interest and over $5 million in 24-hour volume.

Yesterday, the market flash-crashed by a whopping 45%, dropping from around $2,200 to $1,200, triggering the liquidation of more than $1.5 million in leveraged long positions held by hundreds of traders.

Source: Hyperliquid

Ventuals, the provider for this particular market, gave an explanation on their official X account and hinted at compensation:

The offchain data provider used as a component of the oracle price returned incorrect data, which caused the market’s oracle and mark price to move dramatically. This led to the liquidation of some user positions.

We have taken immediate steps to prevent this form happening again on any of the pre-IPO markets, and are evaluating the impact it had on affected users for appropriate compensation.

UPDATE:

Ventuals has confirmed that affected users will be compensated within the next 48 hours.