- Arthur Hayes said he dumped Maelstrom’s directional book on Saturday and moved to the sidelines over macro and geopolitical risk.
- Onchain trackers put the sales at about $22.28 million across seven tokens, led by 6,400 ETH.
- The exit reverses Hayes’ Oct. 15 post, in which he wrote “Long $BTC $ETH.”
On Saturday, Arthur Hayes dumped the directional book of Maelstrom, his family office, with on-chain trackers tallying the sales at $22.28 million across seven tokens.
The BitMEX co-founder took profits on Ethereum (ETH), Ethena (ENA), Uniswap (UNI) and other altcoins.
“I dumped it all. The Maelstrom directional book, took profits on $ETH, $ENA, $UNI and other shitcoins,” Hayes said in a post on X. “I think we gotta go down to go up,” he added.
He said macro and geopolitical conditions look “a bit dicey” and that he’s waiting for a green light before buying back in.
Seven tokens left labeled wallets in a 40-minute window
On-chain trackers identified 6,400 ETH (~$15.2 million), 14 million ENA (~$2.76 million) and 323,000 UNI (~$2.24 million). The rest were smaller quantities of ETHFI, AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA.
Etherscan records show a bigger ETH number. Another address associated with Hayes sent 8,000 ETH in four transactions, 3,200 ETH to a Galaxy Digital deposit and 1,600 ETH each to Binance, FalconX and a fourth address.
The main wallet shifted 14 million ENA to a Binance deposit and 323,000 UNI and 3 million ZAMA to an address tagged for Wintermute. Minutes later, a Wintermute wallet returned 2,425,850 USDC.
The same wallet transferred 1.89 million ETHFI to a FalconX deposit and 120,000 PENDLE to the fourth address. On Base, it channeled 546,610 AERO to Binance.
The tokens were out between 1:34 a.m. and 2:14 a.m. ET Saturday. Hayes posted at 2:18 a.m. ET.
The labeled wallet still retained some 14.45 million ENA after the transfers.
BitMEX co-founder trades the bailout bet for the sidelines
“Instead just trade the eventual multi-trillion dollar bail out. Long $BTC $ETH,” Hayes wrote Oct. 15. The address behind the ETH transfers on Saturday had taken in 8,012 ETH from his main wallet on Oct. 14.
“Going to sit on the sidelines and wait for the all clear signal,” Hayes wrote.
He exits in a way that contradicts his May essay, “The Butterfly Touch.” In it, he pegged a Bitcoin (BTC) bottom near $60,000, floated $126,000 and said he would take Maelstrom’s portfolio “to maximum risk unless anything drastically changes.”
Hayes has quit positions on macro grounds before, announcing full exits from HYPE and NEAR in June. He was accused by ZachXBT of selling HYPE, NEAR, ZEC and WLD within two weeks of boosting each token.
Days after Hayes hyped the token, on-chain observers flagged Maelstrom sending ~$1.92 million of CARDS to market maker Flowdesk later in June, Cryptopolitan reported. Hayes replied to ZachXBT, saying he “sold to a willing seller at a price.”
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FAQs
What did Arthur Hayes sell?
Maelstrom's directional book, including ETH, ENA, UNI and other altcoins, worth about $22.28 million by onchain trackers' count.
Why did Hayes sell his altcoin holdings?
He cited macro and geopolitical risk, writing that "I think we gotta go down to go up."
How does this compare to his earlier position?
It reverses his Oct. 15 post, when he wrote "Long $BTC $ETH" while betting on a multi-trillion-dollar bailout.
Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.
Randa Moses
Randa Moses is an editor and reporter at Cryptopolitan covering tech, AI, robotics, crypto, scams, and hacks. She has worked in the crypto space since 2017. She held roles at Forward Protocol, AmaZix, and Cryptosomniac. Randa holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Bradford.
