Former BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has ignited a firestorm within the cryptocurrency community after rapidly selling off substantial positions in Worldcoin (WLD), Zcash (ZEC), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) — tokens he had recently promoted with bullish price predictions. The abrupt exits, disclosed publicly on X within a span of barely two days, prompted accusations of market manipulation and sparked sharp declines in the affected altcoins.
The controversy began on June 4, when Hayes announced he had liquidated his entire HYPE and NEAR holdings, promising an explanatory essay titled “Reality Test.” A day later, he dumped ZEC following the disclosure of a previously patched vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool, arguing the bug undermined the perfection required for his privacy narrative. The final blow came on June 6, when Hayes closed his WLD position, just three days after vigorously defending the token’s potential to benefit from anticipated AI-related IPOs and shifts in liquidity conditions.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT was among the first to publicly challenge Hayes, posting, “How much exit liquidity was created from your followers over the past couple days? First NEAR, HYPE, ZEC, Now WLD.” Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain highlighted that all four assets had surged following Hayes’ bullish calls, only to crash back to pre-prediction levels within hours of his disclosed sales. Crypto community members lambasted the moves as a “douchebag” shill-and-dump scheme, and some called the pattern “small scammers scammed by the big scammer.”
Crypto analyst Stacy Muur noted that WLD had rallied roughly 68% while the broader market dropped nearly 10%, attributing much of that outperformance to Hayes’ backing and his fund Maelstrom. The rapid series of divestments turned Hayes from a vocal altcoin proponent into a stark bear on high-beta tokens outside Bitcoin and Ether, leaving holders of the dumped coins reeling.
