Hyperliquid's SK Hynix Perp Contract Plunges 17.9% on Unusual Pre-Market Trade

Hyperliquid's SK Hynix perpetual contract briefly plummeted by nearly 18% on July 28 after an unusual pre-market trade in South Korea, causing a ripple effect through the oracle pricing system.

The anomaly occurred when one SK Hynix share was traded at a significantly lower price than expected, triggering a price drop in the Hyperliquid contract. This led to leveraged positions facing liquidations or automatic deleveraging as the contract moved lower.

Trade.xyz, which operates the SKHX market, is investigating the incident and has not published its conclusion yet. The available information suggests that an external market print passed through Trade.xyz's pricing methodology, affecting the on-chain contract.

Hyperliquid's API documentation states that deployers supply oracle prices, external perpetual prices, and mark-price inputs, which are then combined with a local price based on the best bid, best offer, and latest trade. In this case, the unusual NXT transaction affected the oracle pricing system, causing the contract to drop.