An enigmatic crypto whale has opened a giant leveraged short position in Nvidia (NVDA) on the decentralized trading exchange Hyperliquid amid the bombshell controversy surrounding the chipmaker's CEO, Jensen Huang.
As reported by blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, a mysterious trader opened a 10x leveraged short position involving 30,000 NVDA contracts, equivalent to around $5.44 million.
The whale's massive bearish trade emerged soon after the Nvidia CEO publicly admitted to infidelity in the wake of explosive reports alleging that Jensen Huang was a target of Chinese intelligence.
The mysterious trader reportedly opened the position at around $181.33 per contract. With 10x leverage, the whale would need to deposit about $544,000 as initial collateral to control a $5.44 million position.
Shaken by Chinese espionage scandal
The shocking development comes as Nvidia faces one of the gravest controversies surrounding its leadership in recent times.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a startling confession to employees about being unfaithful to his wife.
The revelation comes after The New York Times broke a bombshell story about Jensen Huang and his relationship with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, who was formerly employed by Megaspeed, a Singapore-based technology company.
The Times noted that U.S. intelligence believes Alice Huang was enlisted by China's Ministry of State Security to spy on the Nvidia CEO.
The publication reported that a classified intelligence memo sent to top Trump administration officials said Beijing was looking to collect information on U.S. artificial intelligence technology.
Moreover, the purported intelligence operation was reportedly trying to sway Nvidia's stance on limiting the sale of its top AI chips to China.
Meanwhile, Megaspeed, a buyer of Nvidia's high-end chips, has also drawn the attention of U.S. authorities amid suspicions that AI chips restricted by the U.S. government might end up in China.
Nonetheless, the allegations of espionage have yet to be proven in the public domain.
Massive stock slump
Nvidia-related securities suffered substantial losses ahead of the U.S. market open following the scandal.
Nvidia's stock has fallen by around 8.8% over the past five trading sessions, although it rebounded by 2.8% on Friday.
