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Bankless · Friday, July 31, 2026

AI Trade Unwinds as "Poster Child" Investor Faces Forced Liquidation

The prominent "poster child" of the AI trade has been forced to sell their entire public book due to excessive leverage, signaling a potential unwinding of the AI bubble. This event, characterized as a significant learning lesson about market cycles and leverage, has led to a significant portion of their assets being sold, with Citadel reportedly buying the public book.

personLeopold AshenbrennerpersonKen GriffincompanyCitadel

The tape

3 quotes
The poster child of the AI trade is now a forced seller because he took on a little too much leverage.
AI investor Leopold Ashenbrenner forced to unwind all public stock positions after steep losses. We know he likes a little bit of margin. So he does short some assets. He does long some assets as well.
The big news coming out of this is that Citadel, Ken Griffin, bought the public book. And so that's a big deal. So classic story of this guy...
Heard on Bankless — “ROLLUP: Korea Gets Liquidated | The AI Trade Unwinds | Crypto Holds Firm | Warsh Holds Rates, published Friday, July 31, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via publisher transcript · $0.00
AI Trade Unwinds as "Poster Child" Investor Faces Forced Liquidation — Heardvine