While traditional US stock exchanges remained closed over the weekend, crypto exchanges were the first to price in the news around Nvidia. The perpetual futures contract on the company's shares on Binance (NVDAUSDT) fell 4.2% relative to Friday's close — the digital asset market once again acted as a leading indicator for traditional finance.
The trigger was a scandal surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang that erupted over the weekend, when the US stock market was closed. The first sharp move was recorded at 23:00 Moscow time on November 8. An hour later, the NVDAUSDT contract was trading 1.7% below Friday's close, and six hours later — already 3.1% below. The low came at 04:25 Moscow time on November 9, when the price dropped 4.2%.
Nvidia shareholders received a clear signal of a possible decline at the US market open at 17:30 Moscow time. At the same time, shares of Asian chip suppliers, by contrast, rose — investors in Asia reacted more calmly and do not yet see a threat to the supply chain.
Crypto exchanges set the tone for pricing
The trading volume of the Nvidia futures on Binance over 24 hours amounted to $360.35 million — 107% more than the day before. This figure accounts for 44% of the combined turnover of the eight largest venues, which reaches $819.04 million. Second place went to tradeXYZ with $181.08 million, third to OKX with $63.8 million.
Open interest in the contracts on Binance amounted to $90.57 million, or 30.1% of the value across the eight platforms. The exchange ranked first on both metrics. For investors, this means that prices on crypto exchanges over the weekend become a benchmark for the Monday market open.
Asian Nvidia suppliers rose despite the scandal
Shares of Asia's largest technology companies on Monday recovered Friday's decline despite the investigation into Nvidia. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted index at one point gained up to 6.7%. TSMC shares rose more than 6%, Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) — more than 8%. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares rose 2.7% and 4.77% respectively.
Over the weekend, Nvidia's board of directors began an independent investigation into Huang's relationship with a businesswoman whom US intelligence suspects of espionage for China. The person in question is Alice Huang, a top manager at cloud company Megaspeed, which is among Nvidia's clients. Huang himself admitted to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized. The board of directors stated there was no evidence of corporate secrets leaking or a threat to national security.
Investors are nonetheless pricing in the risks beyond Binance as well. Nvidia futures on Hyperliquid and shares in the Blue Ocean overnight trading system were worth about $180.30 — roughly 3.4% below Friday's Nasdaq close of $186.64.
South Korea's negotiations on supplies show just how dependent the AI industry is on a single chipmaker. South Korea's Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Je-myung said the government expects Nvidia GPU deliveries under contracts to proceed without disruption and is discussing prices and timelines with Nvidia Korea.
Cryptalist analysis: The case demonstrates a structural shift: round-the-clock crypto derivatives on traditional stocks are turning into a full-fledged price-discovery mechanism that runs ahead of the Wall Street open. The divergence between the futures reaction (minus 4.2%) and the rise of Asian suppliers indicates that the market views the scandal as a reputational rather than an operational risk. The resilience of the supply chain and the absence of confirmed leaks remain the key factors that will determine whether the discount in Nvidia shares holds after the US market open.