Arthur Hayes has sold his entire HYPE and NEAR positions, turning one of crypto’s loudest recent Hyperliquid bulls into a near-term profit-taker as market pressure builds. The BitMEX cofounde
Arthur Hayes has sold his entire HYPE and NEAR positions, turning one of crypto’s loudest recent Hyperliquid bulls into a near-term profit-taker as market pressure builds.
The BitMEX cofounder said he will explain the move in an essay titled “Reality Test” next Tuesday. His short version was clear: higher energy prices tied to the Iran war and inventory restocking, three mega AI IPOs between now and early Q3, and a political risk that Donald Trump turns against AI before the U.S. midterms.
Hayes also said market highs could arrive between now and September, adding that it was time to take profit.
On-chain tracking tied the HYPE exit to 247,334 HYPE worth about $18.02 million. The NEAR sale size was not disclosed in the same update.
The timing made the sale louder. HYPE had just been one of the strongest assets in crypto, reaching a fresh all-time high above $75 while Bitcoin, Ethereum and most large-cap altcoins weakened.
That relative strength came from real Hyperliquid activity: deep perp markets, strong fee generation, token buybacks and rising institutional attention. HYPE had already hit a new ATH above $74 before Hayes’ exit, and the token briefly traded above Solana in unit price during the same breakout cycle.
The sale does not erase Hyperliquid’s fundamentals. It does change the short-term narrative. Hayes had repeatedly been one of the most visible supporters of the HYPE trade, including earlier calls for the token to reach much higher levels if Hyperliquid’s revenue and market share kept expanding.
After the exit post, HYPE fell to an intraday low near $65.50. NEAR also weakened, dropping toward $2.31 during the broader market selloff.
Hayes’ reasoning fits a wider market concern already hitting crypto: the largest risk-capital opportunities in years are competing for liquidity.
The same pressure helped frame the recent Bitcoin selloff tied to AI mega-raises. SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet-linked AI infrastructure spending are pulling attention and capital toward private and public equity markets. When investors need cash for those allocations, liquid crypto assets can become the first source of funds.
Hayes is now applying that logic to altcoins. HYPE and NEAR may still have strong project-level narratives, but a market-wide liquidity drain can hit winners first because they have profits to take and enough liquidity to exit.
Energy is the second pressure point. Higher oil and power prices can lift inflation risk, tighten financial conditions and weaken risk appetite. That matters for crypto because altcoins usually perform best when liquidity is expanding, leverage is cheap and traders are willing to move further out on the risk curve.
The sale arrived while Bitcoin was already dealing with a sharp breakdown. BTC flash-crashed toward $61,000, triggering more than $1.1 billion in liquidations and pushing traders into defensive positioning.
That backdrop makes Hayes’ exit more important than a normal portfolio move. He is not only selling two tokens. He is warning that the next few months could become a harder window for risk assets, especially if AI equity demand, energy costs and political pressure collide before September.
For HYPE, the immediate test is whether buyers defend the high-$60 range after one of the token’s most visible bulls stepped aside. For NEAR, the issue is whether its chain-abstraction and Intents momentum can keep investor attention while altcoin liquidity thins.
Hayes has not said the long-term HYPE or NEAR thesis is dead. He has made a cleaner call: take profit before the market potentially tops. In a week already defined by Bitcoin’s flush, rising liquidations and a scramble for dollars, that message hit exactly where traders were most exposed.
The post Arthur Hayes Dumps HYPE And NEAR As Market-Top Warning Spreads appeared first on Crypto Adventure.
