Crude oil just had its biggest day in history, and traders short or taking bearish bets on the commodity over the weekend paid the price.
Tokenized oil perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid saw nearly $40 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass, including $36.9 million from short positions that were wiped out as crude surged about 30% following a dramatic escalation in the Iran conflict.
The CL-$USDC The contract on Hyperliquide jumped to $114.77, up almost 20% in 24 hours. The USOIL-USDH pair hit $135, up 9% on the day after already surging earlier in the week.
The oil movement has eclipsed everything else in the commodity space. Brent and WTI are trading at levels not seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the single-day percentage gain is on track to become the largest in oil market history.
The catalyst was a weekend that went from bad to catastrophic. Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, replacing her father killed in the first wave of strikes. Israel has launched a new series of attacks against Iranian and Hezbollah infrastructure.
Iranian missiles and drones spread beyond Israel to strike Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, killing two people near Riyadh and targeting energy infrastructure. Iraq’s oil production has fallen by around 60%. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have cut production as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed.
Anyone selling oil short in this context was executed. The $36.9 million in short-term liquidations on the CL contract alone made oil one of the largest single-asset liquidation events on Hyperliquid outside of Bitcoin and Ether on Sunday.
Across the entire crypto market, CoinGlass data shows that 94,058 traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours, with total losses reaching $364.4 million. Bitcoin accounted for $156.67 million, Ether accounted for $70.88 million, and Solana accounted for $19.8 million.
Long liquidations outpaced short sales, at $215 million from $149 million, reflecting the broader sell-off in cryptocurrencies as risk assets fell due to escalation. The largest single liquidation was a $6.88 million BTC-USD position on Hyperliquide.
Traders are increasingly using cryptocurrency perpetual markets to express macro views on oil, metals and currencies, attracted by 24/7 access, lower margin requirements and the ability to trade on weekends when traditional commodity markets are closed.
When the missiles start flying on a Saturday, Hyperliquid’s oil contract is one of the only places in the world where you can get leveraged exposure to crude oil.
Open interest on CL-$USDC The deal was worth $195 million, including $570 million in 24-hour volume, numbers that would have been unthinkable for a token commodity a year ago. The USOIL pair carried $4.1 million in open interest with a smaller but growing volume of $16.2 million.
