Hyperliquid’s SPACEX-USDH perpetual contract suffered a violent flash crash on Thursday afternoon, falling from an open of $2,277 to a low of $1,254, a near 45% collapse, in a single 30-minute window before partially recovering to around $2,169. The move liquidated 405 users across 1,393 positions, wiping out $1.51 million in notional value, Hyperliquid data shows.
What makes the episode particularly striking is the concentration of volume. Over the past 24 hours, the contract had quietly evolved, generating just $4.87 million in total trading volume on an open interest base of less than $2.9 million. Then one candle absorbed what was probably most of that entire figure and the market had no depth or liquidity to absorb it.
The median liquidated position had just $31 of margin, pointing to a retail user base that assumed 3x leverage with a minimum cushion.
Hyperliquid SPACEX-USDH is a perpetual crypto contract for the market valuation of SpaceX. Because the company is private, people can’t buy its shares before its planned initial public offering. To solve this, Hyperliquid created a synthetic perpetual contract that allows investors to bet on what they think the company will be worth.
Traders do not buy actual shares of Elon Musk’s rocket company, nor do they gain any ownership or shareholder rights.
Unlike perpetual futures on Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are anchored in deep and liquid spot markets, the SPACEX contract does not have a public reference price, and SpaceX shares are traded only through private secondary markets closed to accredited investors.
At the time of the close, the market price of $2,132 was still more than $220 above the oracle price of $1,908, implying that the contract remained at a premium even after the massacre.
SpaceX is targeting an initial public offering in June.
UPDATE (May 28, 2026, 17:31 UTC): Add additional context.
