Arthur Hayes cleared out his HYPE, NEAR, and ZEC positions over the past two days, while keeping his Worldcoin (WLD) bet intact. The BitMEX co-founder sold HYPE and NEAR on June 4, then offloaded his entire Zcash bag on June 5 after a critical bug surfaced in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool. He's still holding Worldcoin, which surged 80% in a week even as the broader market tanked.
Why Hayes cut HYPE and NEAR
In a post explaining the moves, Hayes pointed to three macro triggers: higher energy prices from the Iran war, a cluster of three mega AI IPOs between now and early Q3, and an expected market top between now and September. On NEAR, the on-chain data was grim. Perpetual whales are heavily net short and sitting on profit; exchange inflows point to distribution. The smart money index has rolled over since the start of June.
Hyperliquid's HYPE told a similar story. Whales are net short by about $53 million. Exchange inflows ran 2.5 times above average, and the smart money index turned lower from the $75 zone. Not much reason to stick around.
Zcash bug triggered the exit
Hayes sold his entire ZEC position on June 5, citing a critical bug in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool. The timing isn't great for the privacy coin — but after Hayes sold, a few interesting patterns showed up. Smart money count dropped about 4% in 24 hours, but the whale cohort rose about 11%, and top-100 addresses grew over 24%. That suggests larger holders bought the crash, even as smaller traders bailed.
Worldcoin is the one he’s keeping
Hayes treats Worldcoin as a high-beta proxy for the AI IPO wave, and says he plans to hold through the upcoming SpaceX listing. The data supports the conviction: every cohort on Hyperliquid — public figures, whales, smart traders — is net long WLD. Whale-held supply off exchanges ticked up from about 9.61 billion to 9.63 billion tokens over recent trading hours.
Some smart-money wallets did take profit on-chain, but exchange outflows ran above average, and fresh-wallet inflows surged far beyond normal levels. New money is piling in, even as the wider crypto market bleeds.
The Iran war narrative, the AI IPO pipeline, and the bearish positioning on HYPE and NEAR all stack up to explain Hayes' moves. What happens next likely hinges on whether Worldcoin can hold its 80% gain and whether the broader sell-off deepens before that September deadline he flagged.
