BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has liquidated positions in Worldcoin (WLD), Hyperliquid (HYPE), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), and Zcash (ZEC), triggering a public debate about transparency and market influence. The sales were executed by his family office, Maelstrom, and were disclosed alongside a lengthy essay in which Hayes argued that artificial intelligence had absorbed nearly all newly created dollar liquidity, preventing Bitcoin from rallying despite monetary expansion.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT challenged Hayes over the sequence of bullish public posts that preceded the token exits. Hayes had promoted WLD as an AI-themed investment, then abruptly sold after the chart weakened. In a June 6 tweet, Hayes wrote that the "Worldcoin chart [was] going in the wrong direction" and he was out. ZachXBT questioned whether followers had been used as exit liquidity, pointing to similar patterns with NEAR, HYPE, and ZEC. Hayes defended his actions, stating he sold to willing buyers at market prices and that the trades reflected his investment goals, not an attempt to manipulate retail traders.
The controversy intensified after on-chain account Lookonchain reported that a wallet linked to Hayes bought back 33,978 HYPE tokens worth about $2.09 million following a 23% price drop. Hayes denied the purchase, adding complexity to the debate over wallet attribution and the transparency of public crypto figures.
Hayes separated the ZEC exit from the other sales, citing a bug in Zcash's Orchard Pool. Although he believed unauthorized minting was highly unlikely, the privacy narrative required cryptographic certainty, and the exploit changed his view. He also noted a 30% decline in ZEC contributed to the profit-taking.
In his essay "Reality Test," Hayes estimated that AI-focused entities had issued around $1.5 trillion in debt between late 2022 and mid-2025, exactly matching the US M2 money supply increase over the same period. He concluded that AI had "consumed virtually every new dollar created," leaving Bitcoin without fresh liquidity. Hayes warned that a sharp correction in AI stocks could trigger a credit tightening and a financial crisis, which would initially pull Bitcoin lower before a policy response sparks a recovery. Maelstrom retains its BTC and ETH holdings, though Hayes plans to use derivatives for tactical short positions to preserve capital through expected turbulence.
