Sunday, 8 November. US stocks were closed. From 3pm ET, NVIDIA (NVDA) perps fell 4.3% in four hours. That day, NVIDIA’s board said it had formed an independent committee to review reports about Jensen Huang. When the overnight session opened at 8pm, the stock was 3.7% below its Friday 8pm price. Over the same window (Fri 8pm to Sun 8pm), the perp fell 3.6%, almost the same.
The same week brought the US midterms and a sharp chip selloff. Choppier markets meant more trading: TradFi perp volume rose 46.5% from the week before.
Midterms: Democrats won both chambers. Seven Senate seats flipped from Republican to Democrat (NBC and others).
Chips sank on 5 Nov. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 12.25%, its worst day since March 2020.
Gold up, oil down. Gold perps +4.0% on the week, crude oil perps −11.8%, Nikkei 225 perps −7.8%.
Among TradFi perps on OKX with more than $1M in weekly volume (excluding leveraged and inverse products), fewer than a quarter finished higher.
Top gainer: AppLovin (APP, +67.9%). Its 4 Nov results showed revenue up 55%, plus a new $3.2B buyback.
Riot Platforms (RIOT, +27.0%) announced a 910 MW, 15-year data-center lease on 4 Nov.
Top loser: Lumentum (LITE, −37.5%). It fell 18.7% on 5 Nov as AI optical stocks dropped together.
AXT (−31.8%), Applied Optoelectronics (−30.1%) and SanDisk (SNDK, −30.1%) also fell sharply.
Stocks close for the weekend, but perps trade around the clock. Here is how the NVDA perp moved (OKX, ET):
Fri 8pm → Sun 3pm: −0.6%. It held around 188.
Sun 3pm → 7pm: −4.3%. From 187.85 to 179.82. The 3pm hour traded $9.15M, 26 times the hour before.
Sun 8pm overnight reopened: the stock opened 3.7% below its Friday 8pm price. Over the same window, the perp fell 3.6%, almost the same. Most of the weekend moves came in those four hours on Sunday afternoon.
NVIDIA has confirmed three things:
On 8 Nov, the board formed an independent committee to review reports about Jensen Huang.
The board says it has no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.
Huang told staff in a letter that he supports the review.
Unverified claims circulating online, such as “espionage”, are not used here.
We compared each perp’s price at the US close (4pm ET) with the same hour on the previous trading day:
On results day (4 Nov), the broad market rose while chips were already falling. SPY perps +1.6%, but NVDA −3.1% and Micron (MU) −6.9%.
On 5 Nov everything fell. QQQ −6.2%, NVDA −9.2%, SK hynix −15.9%, and SOXL, the 3× long chip ETF, −38.5%.
Only gold perps still rose (+0.9%). Gold perps finished the week +4.0%.
Most bounced on Friday 6 Nov; SOXL +12.1%.
On the results: based on NBC coverage as of 4 Nov, the Senate stands at 54 Democrats, 44 Republicans and 2 undecided. Democrats have a House majority, with 42 seats still open.
TradFi perps traded $321.5B this week, the highest we have tracked. Using exchanges with data in both weeks, volume rose from $217.2B to $318.1B, up 46.5%.
TradFi perps were 25.0% of all crypto volume (spot plus derivatives), up from 18.5%.
The busiest day was 5 Nov at $90.7B, the day of the chip selloff.
Binance held 51.4% of volume (53.4% last week, both across all exchanges). MEXC volume rose 70%, OKX 59%.
SOXL: price down another 45%, open interest up 2.9 times. Open interest here is estimated in underlying units (open interest value ÷ closing price), using Binance, Bybit and OKX end-of-day data for 1 and 8 Nov. New positions may include hedges, so they should not all be read as bullish bets.
At the Sunday 8pm ET overnight reopen:
For 8 of 12 stocks, the perp was priced below the stock.
The median gap was 0.32%. Median: sort the 12 gaps by size (ignoring sign) and average the middle two.
Comparing only the 11 stocks in both weeks (EWY is new), the median fell from 0.46% to 0.35%.
Tue 17 Nov, 8:30am: October retail sales, the first consumer data since the election.
Tue 17 Nov, after close (4:20pm): NVIDIA Q3 results, its first report since the board review. NVDA perps fell 12.7% last week.
Wed 18 Nov, 2pm: Fed October minutes (expected).
Wed 18 Nov: in a letter made public on 5 Nov, three House committee chairs asked Huang to give a closed-door briefing that day; attendance is not yet confirmed.
An election, a chip selloff and the Jensen Huang news all landed in one week, and TradFi perp volume hit a new high. On Sunday, with stocks closed, the perps priced the news first. NVIDIA’s results next week are the next test.
TokenInsight TradFi Weekly, every week.
On 8 November 2026, NVIDIA's board said it had formed an independent committee of directors to review reports about Jensen Huang, and that it had no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA secrets had been compromised. Huang told employees in a letter that he supports the review. TokenInsight TradFi Weekly does not use other unverified claims.
Comparing each perp's price at 4pm ET with the same hour on the previous trading day: on 4 November, results day, SPY perps rose 1.6% while NVIDIA fell 3.1% and Micron 6.9%. On 5 November nearly everything fell: QQQ perps −6.2% and the SOXL perp (3× semiconductors) −38.5%; only gold perps rose, +0.9%. Gold perps gained 4.0% on the week.
From 2 to 8 November 2026, TradFi perps on the major crypto exchanges tracked by TokenInsight traded $321.5B, the highest weekly total tracked. Using exchanges with data in both weeks, volume rose 46.5% from the week before. TradFi perps were 25.0% of all crypto volume, up from 18.5%. The busiest day was 5 November at $90.7B.
Binance. From 2 to 8 November 2026, Binance had 51.4% of TradFi perp volume (53.4% the week before, both across all exchanges), or $165.4B. OKX was second at $35.7B, up 59% week on week; MEXC volume rose 70%.
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