US stock markets were closed. Traders betting on chip stocks lost about $52 million anyway.
On October 18, 2026, perpetual futures tied to AI-themed semiconductor stocks and ETFs dropped sharply. The slide triggered approximately $51.6 million in liquidations within 10 minutes, between 05:22 and 05:32 UTC, according to CoinGlass data compiled across multiple exchanges.
The biggest casualty was a product that already carries leverage before anyone adds more: the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares, better known as SOXL.
Ten minutes, five tickers, one bad morning
Liquidations hit hardest on the bullish side of the trade. Long positions accounted for around $38.1 million, or 73.8% of the total.
SOXL led the pack with around $12.73 million in liquidations. SanDisk (SNDK) came next at approximately $10.85 million.
SK Hynix, counting its combined SKHY and SKHYNIX tickers, saw roughly $10.72 million liquidated. SOXS followed at about $9.07 million, while Micron (MU) logged around $4.40 million.
Reports from outlets including KuCoin and Odaily relayed the figures. No single catalyst for the drop was identified in immediate reports.
Why a stock bet can blow up when stocks aren’t trading
Equity perpetual futures are derivatives contracts that track the price of a stock or ETF, but they trade around the clock on crypto-native derivatives platforms.
Unlike traditional futures, perpetuals have no expiry date. Traders can hold them indefinitely, often with significant leverage, and the platform forcibly closes positions when losses eat through the trader’s posted collateral.
This episode unfolded entirely outside US equity market hours. The underlying ETFs, including SOXL, were not trading on their home exchanges, so the perpetual prices moved on their own momentum.
SOXL is designed to deliver three times the daily move of a semiconductor index, which means a trader using leverage on a SOXL perpetual is stacking borrowed exposure on top of built-in leverage.
Not the first off-hours flush this year
Earlier in 2026, equity perpetuals on crypto platforms saw outsized liquidations during off-hours or around regional market moves, separate from spot trading activity in the associated US ETFs.
What this means for traders and platforms
Off-hours trading tends to mean thinner liquidity. Fewer participants means a single large sell order, or a cluster of liquidations, can move prices further than it would during the US session.
With 73.8% of liquidations coming from bullish positions, the market was clearly leaning one way on AI chip exposure.
The research also flags that incidents like this may deter some investors from using perpetual contracts to trade semiconductor-related assets.
Platforms listing equity perpetuals are effectively running a 24-hour market on assets whose reference price only updates during US trading hours.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.