A large short position placed during off-hours sent EdgeX’s Nasdaq 100–linked XYZ100 perpetual sharply lower over the weekend, highlighting the risks of trading equity-index perpetuals when traditional markets are closed.
The move sparked roughly $13 million in liquidations after a newly created wallet executed a sizable short, according to onchain data from Hypurrscan. With liquidity thinner outside regular trading hours, selling pressure was quickly amplified in the equity-linked derivative.
On Saturday, the wallet initiated a six-hour time-weighted average price (TWAP) order to short 398 XYZ100 contracts, valued at about $10 million. The sustained selling pushed the contract down more than 3.5% in a short period, triggering a cascade of forced liquidations.
Liquidations occur when leveraged positions are automatically closed once losses deplete collateral below maintenance requirements. Blockchain data shows one trader alone lost roughly $7.4 million in long positions, while another was liquidated for around $2.7 million, bringing total liquidations to approximately $13 million.
The sharp weekend decline drew scrutiny from traders on X, with some questioning whether the market was vulnerable to manipulation during off-hours, noting that XYZ100 fell nearly 4% without any related macroeconomic or equity-market developments. Others argued that such volatility is an inherent risk of trading equity-linked perpetuals when the underlying markets are shut.
“On weekends, you’re not really trading the Nasdaq,” one trader wrote. “You’re trading whoever has the deepest pockets in a thin market.”
EdgeX has rapidly expanded into one of the largest perpetual futures trading venues. Data from DefiLlama shows the platform processed about $167 billion in perp trading volume last month, often competing with major rivals such as Aster and Hyperliquid on daily volume.
The episode underscores both growing interest in tokenized equity products and the structural risks of derivatives designed to mirror markets that are closed
