🏛 Central Banks & Macro risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if developer defaults cascade to Chinese construction and materials suppliers?

Defaults ripple from developers to their construction, materials and services suppliers, triggering an SME-insolvency wave that raises bank NPLs and unemployment.

14%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 14% · 90% range 5–22% · 40 analogues · measured class growth 94% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — growth ≈1.8868/yr → 94% in 18 mo94%
Analyst prior · editorial share 13% of the class12%
Pooled · weight 87%14%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)14%
Published14%

The class rate is measured from our dated, sourced event library (decade-normalized Poisson — the full table is public at base_rates.json). The variant’s share within its class is the analyst’s editorial call, published so you can audit it. A wider range means thinner precedent. Full recipe: methodology · scored at Reality Check.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (gold) over time vs the crowd's (Polymarket, blue), from the past toward the 6–18 months horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. The gold path is an illustrative reconstruction anchored to today's estimate — real dated events, not a live re-estimate history.

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Defaults ripple from developers to their construction, materials and services suppliers, triggering an SME-insolvency wave that raises bank NPLs and unemployment. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — China growth ▼ · Credit spreads ▲ · Industrial demand ▼ · Recession signal ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

If it happens — the markets it would move

Biggest moves first. Projected moves are cascade-model priors; hist A–B% = what comparable past events actually did (measured abnormal returns), and model prior · unmeasured marks markets with no analogue backing yet. Tap any market for its price history.

MarketClassProjected move
1Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -4.0–+1.03% · other way +0.06% (n=11)
2Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.6%
hist -2.95–+0.5% · other way +0.73% (n=11)
3High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.6%
hist -0.74–-0.03% · other way -0.33% (n=11)
4Financials XLF 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -0.96–+0.08% · other way -0.05% (n=11)
5MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -1.36–+2.06% · other way +27.34% (n=11)
6Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.4%
hist +0.02–+0.49% · other way -6.09% (n=11)
7China internet KWEBon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.4%
hist -1.01–+0.25% · other way -1.29% (n=9)
8Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.3%
hist -3.9–+1.36% · other way +6.08% (n=9)
9JPMorgan JPM 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -2.3–+0.46% · other way +1.69% (n=11)
10Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -0.53–+0.62% · other way -4.57% (n=9)
11S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.3%
hist -0.39–+0.53% · other way -1.07% (n=12)
12Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.3%
hist -0.71–+0.17% · other way +0.29% (n=11)
13Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.3%
hist -12.22–+2.12% · other way -3.19% (n=9)
14Aussie dollar AUD 📈 chartFX▼ -0.2%
hist -0.3–-0.01% · other way -1.81% (n=11)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Cash / hedgeRaise cash and hold the long hedges above; this scenario is net risk-off.
For a common-man portfolio: A typical stock-heavy portfolio is at risk. Consider trimming equities, raising cash, and a small cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Freeport (copper) -0.9% · High-yield credit -0.6% · Financials -0.5% · JPMorgan -0.3% · Aussie dollar -0.2% · Chinese yuan -0.2%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 40 analogous events (overlap‑weighted), as abnormal returns — market beta stripped, so it's the event's own effect, not the market backdrop. Shown at 20 days (persistent) and 5 days (immediate); ↺ fades = the two horizons disagree. Confidence = consistency × sample × significance.

Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 August 24, 2015 ETF flash crash 2015-08 Greece first EU/IMF bailout 2010-05 Northern Rock bank run 2007-09 Hong Kong Stock Exchange four-day closure after Black Monday 1987-10 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Evergrande ordered to liquidate 2024-01 First Republic Bank seized and sold to JPMorgan 2023-05 Regional-bank panic deepens after Signature seizure 2023-03 Offshore yuan hits a record low 2022-11 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 China homebuyer mortgage boycott spreads 2022-07 Sunac China dollar-bond default 2022-05 Alibaba upsizes buyback to record $25 billion 2022-03 Evergrande debt crisis - global selloff 2021-09 Didi removed from China app stores after NYSE IPO 2021-07 Bitcoin May 2021 crash 2021-05 Copper tops $10,000 a tonne for the first time since 2011 2021-04 China 'three red lines' developer leverage rules 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Apple cuts revenue guidance on China weakness 2019-01 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 China stock-market circuit-breaker fiasco 2016-01 China's PBOC reveals 57% jump in gold reserves after six-year silence 2015-07 Shanghai A-share bubble peak / crash begins 2015-06 HYG record outflows in 2014 high-yield rout 2014-10 Mt. Gox collapse 2014-02 Mt. Gox halts withdrawals 2014-02 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Cyprus deposit bail-in 2013-03 Spain requests EUR100bn bank bailout 2012-06 Bankia nationalised in Spain's banking crisis 2012-05 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-10.2% · 5d -13.5%72%21 0.33✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-2.4% · 5d -2.0%67%39 0.29✓ matches cascade
JPM JPMSHORT-1.9% · 5d -1.9%67%40 0.27✓ matches cascade
XPT XPTSHORT-1.7% · 5d -0.6%66%39 0.25✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.9%63%39 0.22✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-5.0% · 5d -5.6%62%23 0.20✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.1%62%39 0.18✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.2% · 5d -0.1%58%39 0.16✓ matches cascade
FCX FCXSHORT-3.3% · 5d -2.2%58%39 0.14✓ matches cascade
CL CLSHORT-0.9% · 5d -2.1%58%39 0.14✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-3.5% · 5d -3.0%57%30 0.12✓ matches cascade
SMH SMHLONG+0.2% · 5d -0.5% ↺ fades56%39 0.10⚠ differs
XPD XPDSHORT-2.1% · 5d -2.4%56%39 0.09✓ matches cascade
SPX SPXLONG+0.7% · 5d +0.4%55%40 0.08⚠ differs

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Crowd odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-07-03.