Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and one of Hyperliquid’s most vocal public supporters, has sold his entire positions in HYPE and NEAR Protocol.

Hayes announced the exit on X on June 4, citing three macro headwinds he said altered his near-term risk calculus.

“I just dumped my entire $HYPE and $NEAR position, I will explain why in my essay ‘Reality Test’ dropping next Tuesday,” Hayes wrote on X.

His stated reasons: higher energy prices driven by the Iran war and inventory restocking, a pipeline of three mega AI IPOs he expects between now and early Q3, and a prediction that President Trump will pivot to an anti-AI political stance ahead of the midterms.

Position Size and Timing

On-chain data tracked by market observers put Hayes’s HYPE exit at roughly 247,334 tokens, worth approximately $18 million at the time of the sale. The NEAR position size was not publicly specified by Hayes.

The reversal came days after Hayes had publicly set a $150 price target for HYPE by August 2026 in a March blog-post tweet. In February, he had wagered $100,000 — payable to a charity of the winner’s choice — that HYPE would outperform any altcoin above $1 billion in market cap between Feb. 10 and July 31 against Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani.

HYPE traded at $65.2 on June 4, down 13% on the day, per CoinGecko. The token had set an all-time high of $75.48 on June 2 — two days before the sale. NEAR fell 22% on the day to $2.23, per CoinGecko.

The Hyperliquid Arc

Hayes’s exit is a reversal of a sustained public bullish stance. He had been one of Hyperliquid’s most visible institutional supporters since at least early 2026, calling out its revenue model and open-market posture. The ICE CEO’s remarks about Hyperliquid in May and $69 million in HYPE ETF inflows has framed the protocol as a growing TradFi target, a backdrop Hayes himself cited as bullish.

Hyperliquid (a Layer 1 blockchain running the dominant on-chain perpetuals exchange) held $5.87 billion in total value locked as of June 4, per DefiLlama. Hyperliquid Perps carried $10.14 billion in open interest, 57% of the total tracked across all decentralized derivatives venues, per DefiLlama derivatives data.

Macro Rationale

Hayes has not yet detailed his full thesis. His June 4 X post offered three TLDR bullets: energy inflation from the Iran conflict and inventory restocking, institutional capital absorption by three large AI IPOs he expects in the coming weeks, and a Trump political pivot away from AI ahead of the midterms.

He said the full reasoning will appear in the “Reality Test” essay on June 9. Hayes has framed the move as tactical — the post does not indicate a change in his long-term view on Hyperliquid’s protocol fundamentals.