🏛 Central Banks & Macro risk-off · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if China abandons its managed float and lets the yuan fall freely?

The PBoC abandons heavy fixing intervention and lets CNY float freely under outflow pressure, producing a sharp one-off devaluation reminiscent of (but larger than) the August 2015 shock that roiled global markets.

10%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 10% · 90% range 3–18% · 40 analogues · measured class china_growth 100% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — china_growth ≈2.5597/yr → 100% in 3 yr100%
Analyst prior · editorial share 10% of the class10%
Pooled · weight 87%11%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)11%
Published10%

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 1–3 years 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. The PBoC abandons heavy fixing intervention and lets CNY float freely under outflow pressure, producing a sharp one-off devaluation reminiscent of (but larger than) the August 2015 shock that roiled global markets. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — US dollar (DXY) ▲ · EM currencies ▼ · China growth ▼ · Risk appetite ▼ — 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
1Turkish lira TRY 📈 chartFX▼ -1.4%
hist -0.98–-0.45% · other way -0.25% (n=12)
2Indian rupee INR 📈 chartFX▼ -1.1%
hist -0.74–-0.34% · other way -0.09% (n=12)
3MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.0%
hist -1.19–-0.12% · other way +24.57% (n=12)
4Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.9%
hist -16.92–+1.4% · other way -1.0% (n=12)
5Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.8%
hist -0.64–-0.2% · other way -0.81% (n=12)
6Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.7%
hist -1.4–+0.17% · other way -0.29% (n=12)
7Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.7%
model prior · unmeasured
8Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -11.51–+1.59% · other way +4.71% (n=12)
9Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -4.81–+1.42% · other way +5.56% (n=12)
10Aussie dollar AUD 📈 chartFX▼ -0.6%
hist -0.48–-0.12% · other way -0.91% (n=12)
11US dollar (DXY) DXYon Hyperliquid 📈 chartFX▲ +0.5%
hist +0.13–+0.37% · other way +0.7% (n=12)
12Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.5%
hist -1.24–+0.68% · other way +3.18% (n=12)
13Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -3.63–+1.19% · other way +1.0% (n=12)
14EUR/USD EURUSDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartFX▼ -0.5%
hist -0.36–-0.11% · other way -0.53% (n=12)

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): Turkish lira -1.4% · Indian rupee -1.1% · Chinese yuan -0.8% · Aussie dollar -0.6% · Freeport (copper) -0.5% · Tech sector -0.4%

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.

China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 Offshore yuan hits a record low 2022-11 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 Alibaba upsizes buyback to record $25 billion 2022-03 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Evergrande debt crisis - global selloff 2021-09 Didi removed from China app stores after NYSE IPO 2021-07 Bitcoin May 2021 crash 2021-05 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Apple cuts revenue guidance on China weakness 2019-01 China stock-market circuit-breaker fiasco 2016-01 August 24, 2015 ETF flash crash 2015-08 Shanghai A-share bubble peak / crash begins 2015-06 October 27, 1997 mini-crash 1997-10 Thai baht float 1997-07 Tiananmen Square crackdown 1989-06 Hong Kong Stock Exchange four-day closure after Black Monday 1987-10 Louvre Accord 1987-02 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1978-12 Record $19bn crypto liquidation cascade 2025-10 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 US-China extend tariff truce by another 90 days 2025-08 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 US bars Nvidia H20 AI-chip exports to China 2025-04 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Tesla shares crater on DOGE political backlash and Europe sales collapse 2025-03 TSMC slumps as DeepSeek roils AI-chip demand assumptions 2025-02 DeepSeek shock crushes AI-power utilities Vistra and Constellation 2025-01 Micron's weak FQ2 guidance sparks a sharp December selloff 2024-12 US October 2022 advanced-computing chip rules tighten further 2024-12 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 China 'bazooka' stimulus package 2024-09 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 China imposes antimony export controls 2024-08 Nikkei 225 record single-day rebound 2024-08 Nikkei 225 worst single-day crash since 1987 2024-08 KOSPI biggest-ever point loss triggers circuit breaker 2024-08 VIX third-highest spike on record 2024-08
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-13.2% · 5d -14.9%79%29 0.41✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-9.3% · 5d -8.8%74%31 0.37✓ matches cascade
MU MUSHORT-6.3% · 5d -3.6%72%39 0.37✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-2.4% · 5d -2.3%67%34 0.25✓ matches cascade
KWEB KWEBSHORT-1.5% · 5d -1.1%62%34 0.24✓ matches cascade
AMD AMDSHORT-4.2% · 5d -1.7%65%39 0.23✓ matches cascade
SPX SPXLONG+1.1% · 5d +0.2%61%40 0.19⚠ differs
COIN COINSHORT-3.7% · 5d -1.8%61%29 0.19✓ matches cascade
Gold XAULONG+1.3% · 5d +0.6%62%34 0.19·
XCU XCUSHORT-0.2% · 5d -1.0%60%34 0.16✓ matches cascade
NDX NDXSHORT-1.0% · 5d -1.3%60%39 0.15✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-4.2% · 5d -4.3%60%34 0.15✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXSHORT-1.4% · 5d -0.0%59%36 0.15⚠ differs
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.1% · 5d +0.2% ↺ fades60%34 0.15✓ matches cascade

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.