Former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, Arthur Hayes stated on Thursday, that he had completely exited all his positions in Hyperliquid’s HYPE and NEAR Protocol’s NEAR tokens. Hayes blamed uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions as the primary reasons behind his decision.
Hayes accused of pump and dump
The Maelstrom CIO posted on X that factors such as high energy prices due to the war in the Middle East, and 3 major IPOs of AI companies like SpaceEX, Anthropic, and OpenAI between now (June 4) and Q3 2026 forced him to rethink his positions in HYPE and NEAR.
According to Hayes, these factors could turn into serious headwinds for risk-on assets, especially altcoins. It’s worth pointing out that on May 30, Hayes had predicted that he sees HYPE surging to record highs, possibly to $150.
Further, Hayes added that AI-native blockchain projects like NEAR Protocol could suffer if U.S. President Donald Trump takes an “anti-AI” stance going into the November 2026 mid-term elections. He noted that Trump could take such a stance to try and help the Republican Party win the election.
Finally, he said that he foresees the market continuing to hit highs at least until September 2026. “Time to take profit, and two-step in beefa without worrying about my positions,” Hayes added.
Meanwhile, on-chain data shows that Hayes sold 247,334 HYPE worth $18.02 million earlier on Thursday. The following screenshot shows that Hayes moved his HYPE holdings to OKX crypto exchange to liquidate.
Some X users didn’t hold back, criticizing Hayes for benefitting himself by publicly sharing extraordinary price targets for the altcoin, only to sell all his holdings within a few days. On May 22, Hayes had dubbed HYPE, NEAR, and privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC), the “holy trinity.”
Impact on HYPE and NEAR price
Hayes’ announcement’s impact on HYPE was instantaneous, as the cryptocurrency tumbled more than 14 percent, from around $75 on Wednesday to $64.8 on Thursday, before recovering some of its losses.
The impact on NEAR token was more pronounced, as it fell all the way from over $3 on Wednesday to around $2.3 on Thursday, representing a drop of over 25 percent.
Notwithstanding Hayes’ actions and the subsequent negative price movements, the fundamentals of the aforementioned project haven’t changed.
While Hyperliquid continues to blaze the trail, consistently executing record numbers in perpetuals trading volume, Near Protocol is set to implement the highly-anticipated dynamic sharding upgrade.
