🧠 Technology & AI risk-off · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if a satellite-internet constellation fails all at once?

A LEO constellation bricking strands rural/maritime broadband and hits satellite operators and insurers — it is NOT a Taiwan-fab supply shock, so selling TSMC/ASML/Nvidia on 'semiconductor_risk' is the wrong channel. Closest analogue is the 2022 Viasat/KA-SAT cyber-outage, which was contained to comms names. Real read: launch/space-insurance repricing plus a modest risk-off wobble; the semi complex is a non-sequitur here.

6%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 6% · 90% range 0–12% · 40 analogues · measured class geopolitical 100% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — geopolitical ≈6.2329/yr → 100% in 3 yr100%
Analyst prior · editorial share 5% of the class5%
Pooled · weight 87%6%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)6%
Published6%

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. A cascading software fault de-orbits or bricks a large LEO broadband fleet, stranding rural and maritime connectivity. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Risk appetite ▼ · Geopolitical risk ▲ — 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
1Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +2.8%
hist -0.54–+5.46% · other way +3.23% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.2%
hist -0.86–-0.23% · other way -0.37% (n=12)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -0.54–+0.12% · other way -0.34% (n=12)
4MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -1.78–+3.13% · other way +26.92% (n=12)
5S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.6%
hist -0.35–-0.19% · other way +0.57% (n=12)
6Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -2.68–+0.62% · other way +0.89% (n=12)
7Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.5%
model prior · unmeasured
8Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -0.46–+0.57% · other way +2.23% (n=12)
9Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.5%
hist -9.55–+1.23% · other way +5.13% (n=12)
10Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.4%
hist -4.78–+1.46% · other way +5.17% (n=12)
11Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.4%
hist -0.35–+1.74% · other way -0.6% (n=12)
12Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.4%
hist -0.84–+0.12% · other way +4.75% (n=12)
13High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.3%
hist -0.56–+0.04% · other way -0.32% (n=12)
14Coinbase COINon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -2.58–+6.4% · other way +21.23% (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 gold hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -0.8% · High-yield credit -0.3% · Financials -0.2% · JPMorgan -0.2% · Lockheed +0.2% · Northrop +0.2%

Why we may diverge from history

Trust the cascade short: MSTR/COIN/SOL gains are BTC-bull and geopolitical-window artifacts, not a satellite-fleet failure — the crypto channel is swamped by Bitcoin, history's sign is spurious here.

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.

Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 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 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 US airline stocks plunge ~40% on first trading day after 9/11 2001-09 Hong Kong defends the peg with sky-high HIBOR 1997-10 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Tiananmen Square crackdown 1989-06 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Reagan assassination attempt 1981-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 JFK assassination 1963-11 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962-10 Korean War begins 1950-06 Smoot-Hawley clears the US House 1929-05 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 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 Operation Sindoor: India strikes Pakistan after Pahalgam attack 2025-05 Tesla shares crater on DOGE political backlash and Europe sales collapse 2025-03 TSMC slumps as DeepSeek roils AI-chip demand assumptions 2025-02 Micron's weak FQ2 guidance sparks a sharp December selloff 2024-12 South Korea martial law crisis 2024-12 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 Hezbollah pager and device explosions across Lebanon 2024-09 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 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 Intel's Q2 earnings trigger its worst single-day crash since 1974 2024-08
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-7.7% · 5d -6.4%75%24 0.37✓ matches cascade
AVGO AVGOLONG+3.8% · 5d -0.6% ↺ fades65%28 0.29⚠ differs
AMD AMDSHORT-1.0% · 5d -0.6%67%34 0.26✓ matches cascade
NDX NDXSHORT-0.3% · 5d -1.0%66%33 0.24✓ matches cascade
Gold XAULONG+1.4% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades64%29 0.23✓ matches cascade
MU MUSHORT-3.9% · 5d -2.7%64%33 0.23✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+3.8% · 5d +3.0%61%31 0.20✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.1%62%28 0.19✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-4.2% · 5d -3.6%61%27 0.16✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-2.2% · 5d -8.1%62%21 0.15✓ matches cascade
SMH SMHLONG+0.8% · 5d -0.5% ↺ fades60%29 0.15⚠ differs
COIN COINLONG+6.1% · 5d +1.6%58%21 0.15⚠ differs
JPM JPMLONG+0.6% · 5d -0.3% ↺ fades60%34 0.15⚠ differs
NVDA NVDASHORT-0.6% · 5d -3.5%60%29 0.13✓ matches cascade

Why this probability

Cascading fault bricking a large LEO fleet is unprecedented; redundancy and ground control make fleet-wide loss very unlikely. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.

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.