HYPE, NEAR, ZEC Outrun Bitcoin After Hayes Dumps Them — Now He's Denying A $2M Buyback

Despite Hayes’s exit, HYPE, NEAR, and ZEC outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum in daily gains on Monday.

• Arthur Hayes denied buying back Hyperliquid after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain linked him to a wallet that allegedly withdrew $2.09 million HYPE tokens.
• The alleged purchase surfaced four days after Hayes disclosed selling his entire Hyperliquid position when the token traded above $72.
• Hyperliquid spot exchange-traded fund recorded $16.65 million in net inflows last week, according to SoSoValue data.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes denied buying back Hyperliquid (HYPE) on Monday, after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain linked him to a wallet that withdrew about $2.09 million worth of the asset from Bybit.

“I didn’t buy sh*t,” Hayes wrote on X, responding to Lookonchain’s post about the transaction. Lookonchain flagged the transaction, saying that a wallet allegedly linked to Hayes withdrew 33,978 HYPE tokens from Bybit. The analytics platform also said that HYPE later dropped about 23% to below $56 before the wallet withdrew the tokens. 

The ‘Holy Trinity’ Gains After Hayes Exit

The fresh wallet activity comes after Hayes exited his positions in HYPE, Zcash (ZEC), and the NEAR Protocol token (NEAR) over the past week. He had previously labeled them the “holy trinity,” but exited his positions citing higher energy prices due to the US-Iran tensions and broader market risks. He previously said that Hyperliquid could still be a great project, but he thinks broader markets are entering a riskier phase and is taking profits.

Despite Hayes selling the altcoins, all three outpaced Bitcoin and Ethereum in daily gains on Monday. Bitcoin’s price was up 0.9% over the past 24 hours, and Ethereum’s price (ETH) was up by 3%. 

However, HYPE’s price was trading near $63, up over 5% in the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around HYPE stayed in the ‘bullish’ zone, while chatter around it moved to ‘normal’ from ‘high’ levels over the past day. 

Additionally, SoSoValue data showed that the HYPE spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) saw a net inflow of $16.65 million over the past week. 

Additionally, NEAR’s price and Zcash’s price also rose over 10% during the past 24 hours. The broader crypto market cap edged higher, up by 0.7%.

Hayes’ Sell-offs Criticized 

Various market participants heavily criticized the sell-off of Hayes. Most notably, on-chain investigator ZachXBT asked whether Hayes’ public endorsements encouraged his followers to buy before he sold.

On Stocktwits, one user called Hayes “a grifter” after he sold his Worldcoin (WLD) position just days after predicting it would hit $10.

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