Citadel Clears Out Leopold Aschenbrenner's $2 Billion Miner Bet

Citadel has unwound more than 80% of the risk it took on from Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness portfolio, a fund that lost nearly two-thirds of its value in July. The portfolio was sold to Citadel at a discount, and the investment firm quickly cleared out most of the positions.

The Situational Awareness fund, run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, gained 439% in the first half of 2026 but lost nearly two-thirds of its value in July. It handed roughly $10 billion of stock to Citadel on July 30.

Aschenbrenner's fund was buying megawatts, not Bitcoin, and the real danger lay elsewhere - in $8.5 billion of put options against AI names that were hedging against a potential downturn. By June 30, those hedges had almost entirely gone, replaced by $12.5 billion of outright long bets.

Citadel moved quickly to clear out the risk, pushing through nearly 100 block trades worth more than $4 billion in just three weeks. The firm bought the portfolio at a discount and three Citadel funds gained sharply afterward.