Hyperliquid SpaceX Pre-IPO Perpetual Drops 45%, $1.51M Liquidated

On May 28 the SPACEX-USDH synthetic perpetual on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid plunged 45%, falling from $2,277 to $1,254 in roughly 30 minutes, according to onchain data. The drop triggered $1.51 million in liquidations across 1,393 positions held by 405 users.

The contract later recovered to about $2,157, but the rapid decline occurred amid thin order books and concentrated leverage that produced cascading liquidations across the platform’s matching engine.

SPACEX-USDH is a synthetic perpetual that tracks an implied market valuation for private company SpaceX. The contract was built using Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 architecture by an independent builder called Ventuals. Because SpaceX is privately held and is expected to pursue a U.S. IPO around June 11, there is no public spot price to anchor the contract.

Onchain records show the median margin of liquidated positions was $31, indicating many affected traders used high leverage. The total notional loss recorded for the event was $1.51 million.

Ventuals pledged to compensate affected users within 48 hours.

Before the drop, trading activity had pushed the contract’s implied valuation above $2.5 trillion, while public estimates of SpaceX’s IPO target valuation were in the $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion range. Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, recently reached all-time highs, and pre-IPO synthetic contracts on the platform have shown large price swings.

Because these synthetic assets are not tied to a public benchmark, market participants rely on fragmented private secondary-market data to price contracts. Shallow liquidity on those contracts can lead to rapid price moves and trigger automated deleveraging mechanisms that close leveraged positions.