Arthur Hayes says ‘I Didn’t Buy’ amid $2M HYPE transfer

An address linked with Arthur Hayes reportedly withdrew 33,979 HYPE coins (approx worth $2.09 million) from the Bybit exchange on June 8. This gave rise to speculations that Hayes must have changed his mind after exiting the cryptocurrency in an equally significant move just days before. 

However, Hayes dispelled the rumors using four words on X: “I didn’t buy shit.” This is important in the context of crypto trading as HYPE is already up in double digits following the positioning by Hayes.

Arthur Hayes’ HYPE exit

Hayes sold off all of his investments in HYPE and NEAR tokens on June 4, predicting a crypto market peak ahead of September, due to the increasing cost of energy amid the Iran crisis, three huge AI company IPOs set to drain out liquidity from crypto markets to equity, and his prediction of Donald Trump potentially becoming anti-AI during the midterms.

The sale was notable because of the fact that Hayes has been one of the most vocal advocates for HYPE coins. In May, he had said that HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR were some of Maelstrom’s most highly conviction holdings, adding that Bitcoin could eventually reach new historical highs.

However, Hayes’ decision to sell off his HYPE holdings came as an unexpected shock for the community, causing the price of the HYPE token to plunge sharply. As per reports, the HYPE price fell by over 11% after the announcement, trading below $65.

This sell-off resulted in many leveraged positions being liquidated in the HYPE perpetual marketplaces, amplifying downside pressure as traders reacted to one of crypto’s most closely watched macro investors unwinding his position.

Hayes denies buying HYPE after $2.09 million move

Lookonchain in an X post flagged the Bybit withdrawal. Hayes responded directly to Lookonchain’s post, writing on X: “I didn’t buy shit.” Meanwhile, Onchain Lens mentioned that 33,979 HYPE were withdrawn from the wallet. It added that there were 34,066 HYPE in the wallet at that time.

It is not uncommon for such a discrepancy to occur, since wallets associated with public figures are identified through probabilistic on-chain data analysis, and the withdrawal of HYPE from an exchange may involve an internal transfer or someone else’s activity using the same set of addresses.

Given the timing of this story, it shows just how much crypto is still susceptible to whaling plays. HYPE was already suffering losses due to a token unlock event happening on June 6 where 237 million tokens, constituting about 23.8% of the total supply, became available to key contributors. The token unlock alone made up 71% of all token unlocks that occurred within the whole crypto market that week.

It seems like the combination of the initial exit by Hayes, the unlocking of tokens by contributors, and the macro environment put pressure on the token and created a feedback loop: spot selling caused liquidation of leveraged longs, causing further losses in price. This drew more attention to the exit, which prompted further copycat selling from smaller holders.

Hayes’ influence on market sentiment partly explains why traders reacted so aggressively. Though some of his market calls have not necessarily been perfectly timed, he has recently made quite a few predictions that got a lot of attention from investors. At the beginning of this year, for instance, Hayes called a bottom in Bitcoin at around $60,000, forecasting that the price would reach $126,000, all while naming HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR as suitable choices for speculative investments.