Crypto04 June, 20262 min read
Arthur Hayes Dumps $18 Million HYPE And NEAR As Hyperliquid Pulls Back From Record Highs
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Hayes sold all HYPE and NEAR holdings. Hyperliquid's HYPE price pulled back from ATH after the exit.
Hayes exits HYPE
Arthur Hayes sold all of his HYPE and NEAR holdings, and the move came as Hyperliquid’s HYPE token pulled back from record highs after his exit. Benzinga said Hayes transferred approximately $18 million in HYPE to market maker Flowdesk according to on-chain data, and Hayes posted “Time to take profit, and two-step in beefa without worrying about my positions,” on X.
CoinDesk reported Hayes wrote on X, “I just dumped my entire HYPE and NEAR position,” and said the selloff pulled HYPE back to $67 from record highs near $75. The same CoinDesk account said Hayes blamed macro risks and AI mania for taking profits, while TradingView reported Hayes warned financial markets could peak before September and wrote “Time to take profit.”
Backlash and competing takes
The exit triggered backlash in crypto circles, with CoinDesk saying Hayes had been among Hyperliquid’s most vocal supporters and that traders questioned why his calls were treated as actionable signals. CoinDesk quoted Arthur Cheong, founder of DeFiance Capital, describing the move as "the epitome of a guy that over-trades his position" in an X post.
Benzinga said Hayes had posted “Meow, HYPE to $150” just four days earlier on June 1 and had placed the $100,000 bet against Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani the same day. On the broader market backdrop, Benzinga reported U.S. spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) ETFs extended their outflow streak to 13 consecutive sessions on Wednesday, shedding $4.37 billion since mid-May, while BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) alone shed $342.34 million on Wednesday.
What’s at stake next
Even after Hayes’ exit, the sources tied near-term stakes to where HYPE holds support, with Bitget saying Hyperliquid traded near $67 on June 4 after reaching an all-time high of $75.5 two days earlier. Bitget said the token fell more than 10% over the past 24 hours and cited on-chain tracking that Hayes sold 247,334 $HYPE tokens worth approximately $18 million, while also noting Grayscale launched its Hyperliquid Staking ETF under the ticker HYPG on June 3.
TradingView said HYPE investment products attracted nearly $3 million in fresh inflows on June 3, extending a 15-day inflow streak, and that Hayes planned to rotate part of his capital into Bitcoin. In a separate framing of risk-reward, CoinDesk quoted 10xResearch’s Markus Thielen saying, "But at current prices, the risk-reward has shifted," as it described HYPE as one of the best-performing crypto even as it pulled back from its record run.