Arthur Hayes Sells Entire HYPE and NEAR Holdings, Warns Markets May Peak Before September

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes sold his entire HYPE and NEAR positions on June 4, 2026, days after posting on May 31, 2026 that HYPE would reach $150 and making a $100,000 charity bet with Kyle Samani that Hyperliquid would outperform every top-10 cryptocurrency by year-end. Hayes cited three mega AI IPOs between June 4, 2026 and early Q3 2026 as draining market liquidity and warned markets may peak before September 2026. He plans to rotate proceeds into Bitcoin.

Hayes exits HYPE position

• ▪Arthur Hayes is the co-founder of BitMEX and CIO of Maelstrom
• ▪Arthur Hayes sold his entire HYPE position on June 4, 2026
• ▪Arthur Hayes made a $100,000 charity bet with Kyle Samani that Hyperliquid would outperform every top-10 cryptocurrency by year-end
• ▪Arthur Hayes sold his entire HYPE position for $5.1 million on September 21, 2025

Hayes exits NEAR position

• ▪Arthur Hayes stated he would rotate proceeds from his HYPE and NEAR sales into Bitcoin

Energy prices macro concerns

• ▪Arthur Hayes plans to publish an essay titled 'Reality Test' on June 10, 2026
• ▪Arthur Hayes believes markets may peak sometime between June 4, 2026 and September 2026
• ▪Arthur Hayes cited higher energy prices due to Iran war and inventory restocking as a reason for selling his HYPE and NEAR positions

AI IPO liquidity drain

• ▪Arthur Hayes cited three mega AI IPOs between June 4, 2026 and early Q3 2026 as a reason for selling his HYPE and NEAR positions
• ▪Arthur Hayes cited looming AI IPOs that could drain market liquidity as a reason for selling his HYPE and NEAR positions

Recent bullish HYPE promotion

• ▪Arthur Hayes promoted what he called his holy trinity of altcoins: HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR
• ▪Arthur Hayes posted on May 31, 2026 that HYPE would reach $150
• ▪Arthur Hayes was aggressively bullish on Hyperliquid in September 2025, floating a potential 126x rally

Repeated pump-dump pattern

• ▪Arthur Hayes admitted some proceeds from his September 21, 2025 HYPE sale went toward buying a Ferrari
• ▪Arthur Hayes has previously exited positions in ETH, PEPE, and ENA following similar patterns of promotion and sale
• ▪Ahmed Barakat has been part of the CryptoNews team since August 2025
• ▪Arthur Hayes bought back into HYPE after selling his entire position on September 21, 2025