Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder who now runs crypto enterprise fund Maelstrom, bought his private stash of Hyperliquid’s HYPE tokens simply weeks after predicting the asset may rally 126-fold.
Ferrari jokes and blockchain receipts
Blockchain analytics service Lookonchain reported on Sunday that Hayes unloaded 96,628 HYPE — value about $5.1 million — reserving a revenue of roughly $823,000, or 19%, in a month.
Not lengthy after, Hayes confirmed the transfer along with his trademark irreverence, posting on X: “Have to pay my deposit on the brand new Rari 849 Testarossa.” The remark fueled backlash from merchants who accused him of pumping HYPE in August earlier than shortly exiting.
Hayes pushed again on Monday, insisting the sale was tied to issues laid out by his agency. “This is the reason we dumped $HYPE at the moment. However don’t fear 126x remains to be attainable 2028 is a great distance off,” he wrote.
Maelstrom warns of $11.9B provide unlocks
Earlier at the moment, Maelstrom printed a prolonged X publish outlining what it known as HYPE’s “first true check.”
Beginning Nov. 29, 237.8 million HYPE will start vesting linearly over two years — unlocking almost $500 million of tokens per 30 days. At present costs of round $50, that represents $11.9 billion of provide getting into circulation.
The publish estimated Hyperliquid’s buyback program may solely take in about 17% of that movement, leaving a possible $410 million month-to-month overhang. “Has the market priced within the sheer scale of those unlocks?” Maelstrom requested.
Maelstrom framed the looming provide shock as pure for a fast-growing protocol however warned that enormous vested allocations could tempt early builders and insiders to promote. The agency additionally famous that even massive decentralized autonomous treasury (DAT) offers, corresponding to Sonnet’s $583 million HYPE increase, gained’t offset the dimensions of the unlocks.
Nonetheless betting on a decentralized Binance
The remarks contrasted sharply with Hayes’s Aug. 27 weblog publish, the place he known as Hyperliquid a “decentralized Binance” and argued HYPE may climb 126x by 2028. That thesis relied on daring assumptions: a $10 trillion stablecoin market, Hyperliquid capturing a Binance-level buying and selling share, and charge constructions holding regular.
Regardless of promoting his tokens, Hayes reiterated that long-term view on Monday, describing the upcoming unlock as a hurdle, not a dying blow. In his phrases, “2028 is a great distance off.”
Hyperliquid has surged to turn into a dominant participant in decentralized perpetual futures, and its HYPE token stays central to governance, staking and charge distribution. Whether or not the market can digest almost $12 billion in new provide could decide if Hayes’s forecast proves prescient — or overly formidable.
