Arthur Hayes goes long on Ethereum and DeFi tokens

Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom Fund, has gone long on Ethereum just days after dumping it at a lower price, missing a chance to book a good profit. In his fresh trade, Hayes spent around $8 million to buy Ether and a handful of DeFi blue-chip tokens.

This move comes in when Ethereum regained the much-anticipated $4,000 level and went on to hit $4,300 amid the rally. Hayes, who is popular for posting and pumping several major altcoins and meme coins, didn’t say much about his recent trade.

Arthur Hayes loads up on ETH, LDO, ETHFI

As per on-chain data, Arthur Hayes scooped 1,500 ETH at an average $4,233 ($6.35 million). His latest accumulation included 425K Lido DAO (LDO) ($557K), 420K ETHFI ($517K), and a combined $1.53 million in Pendle (PENDLE) across two tranches.

Hayes’ return to the market is contrary to his past crypto trades and shows a sharp pivot from last week. Last week, he sold 2,373 ETH worth $8.32 million at around $3,507, warning that macro headwinds could drag ETH to $3,000. However, he also exited other positions, unloading $4.62 million in Ethena and $414K in Pepe. Later, he moved out 10.5 million USDC to buy back ETH.

Following the surge of $ETH, Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) bought $7.93M worth of 4 #Ethereum ecosystem tokens in the last 19 hours, including:

• 1,500 $ETH ($6.35M) at $4,233
• 424,863 $LDO ($556.6K) at $1.31
• 420,000 $ETHFI ($516.6K) at $1.23
• 92,005 $PENDLE ($507K) at… pic.twitter.com/oL0EyEjNI9

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) August 11, 2025

The Maelstrom’s CIO returned to buying Ether at nearly 20% higher prices. Ethereum is running high on the bullish momentum, outperforming Bitcoin. ETH price surged by 42% over the last 30 days, keeping altcoin season hopes alive. Ethereum is trading at an average price of $4,235 at press time.

Other Ethereum ecosystem tokens, such as Ethena’s price spiked by 30% over the last 7 days. ENA is trading at an average price of $0.807 at press time. Lido DAO posted a massive jump of 55% in the same period. LDO is trading at an average price of $1.43.

97% of ETH holders are in profit

This is not just a sway that has renewed Hayes’s conviction in the biggest altcoin. It aligns with a broader wave of institutional ETH accumulation. Data shows that an unidentified whale has grabbed 221,166 ETH ($946 million) in the past week via Galaxy Digital, FalconX, and BitGo.

Public companies are also joining the moment. BitMine Immersion Technologies now holds 833,137 ETH ($3 billion), SharpLink Gaming controls 521,900 ETH, and is raising $200M to buy more.

As of now, 17 public companies hold 1.74 million ETH valued at nearly $6.9 billion. The wave of demand is also evident in ETFs. US spot Ethereum funds saw $461 million in net inflows on Friday, beating Bitcoin ETFs’ $403 million. BlackRock’s ETHA ETF alone took in over $245 million. ETH ETFs have now posted four consecutive days of inflow, 13 weeks of continuous inflow and 4 months of printing green indexes.

Sentora mentioned that 97% of the Ethereum addresses are currently in profit. DeFiLlama data shows that Ether’s total value locked (TVL) is up by almost 30% over the last month to stand at $91.99 billion. Meanwhile, its market cap has hit $510 billion.