Arthur Hayes, the outspoken former BitMEX co-founder turned Maelstrom CIO, has quietly taken profits on one of the tokens he spent August hyping to the heavens. On Monday, Lookonchain reported that Hayes sold all 96,628 HYPE tokens, roughly $5.1 million at the time he bought them, pocketing about $823,000, a gain of roughly 19.2%.
The sale is notable because it comes just weeks after Hayes used the WebX Summit stage and subsequent interviews to lay out a sweeping bull case for Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, arguing that explosive stablecoin adoption and hyper-liquid on-chain markets could justify an eye-watering 126x upside for the token. Hayes’ long-term thesis, which ties huge potential fee revenues to a scenario of massively expanded stablecoin supply, helped spark a volatile rally in HYPE through late August and September.
The HYPE Buzz
HYPE’s price has reflected that hype-and-take-profit dynamic. The token hit fresh highs in mid-September, trading as high as about $59, before pulling back; at the time of writing, HYPE is trading in the low-to-mid $50s depending on the exchange, and has given back a chunk of the intramonth gains as traders weighed Hayes’ forecasts against quick profit-taking.
On-chain indicators and market microstructure helped accelerate the move earlier this month: open interest and decentralized exchange volumes around Hyperliquid surged as traders rotated into the token after Hayes’ comments, a spike that analysts flagged as both a confirmation of growing interest and a reason why sharp short-term reversals were likely once early buyers started to cash out. That combination, a bold public price target plus outsized flows, is a classic recipe for volatile, headline-driven price action.
For his part, Hayes has framed the trade and his public commentary as part of a wider macro and product narrative rather than a simple market tip. He’s argued publicly that an enormous increase in stablecoin circulation, driven in part by banking rails and institutional adoption, would funnel trading activity and fee revenue to platforms like Hyperliquid, making today’s market caps look tiny by comparison. Still, his recent liquidation shows how even proponents can use sharp rallies as an opportunity to lock in returns, and it underscores the distinction between making a long-term case and managing a live, multi-asset portfolio.
Investors watching the HYPE tape now face a familiar question: Does Hayes’ partial exit, and similar profit-taking from other early buyers, mark the start of a consolidation phase, or is this just noise in a broader uptrend that his 126x scenario would require years to play out? Technicals suggest HYPE needs to hold recent support levels near the low-$50s to keep the momentum narrative alive; a sustained drop below those levels would likely invite more selling from traders who chased the short-term move. Price watchers will also be keeping an eye on on-chain liquidity metrics and whether broader stablecoin flows actually trend toward the levels Hayes described.
For now, the story reads like a microcosm of 2025’s crypto market, bold public forecasts, rapid retail and institutional rotation into new narratives, and quick profit-taking when the candles turn. Hayes’ 126x prediction remains on record, but after this week’s sale, his personal exposure to the trade appears trimmed; whether that reduces the market’s appetite for HYPE or simply marks a tactical rebalancing will be clear only in the coming sessions as prices and volumes settle.
