Hyperliquid price fell 7% after Arthur Hayes said he dumped his entire HYPE▼$67.70 and NEAR▼$2.42 holdings, days after betting on HYPE against SOL▼$70.04.
Arthur Hayes crypto price predictions took a sharp turn after the BitMEX co-founder said he dumped his entire HYPE and NEAR positions.
Hayes, the co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, said in a June 4 post on X that he had sold all of his HYPE and NEAR holdings.
“I just dumped my entire HYPE and NEAR position, I will explain why in my essay ‘Reality Test’ dropping next Tuesday,” Hayes wrote.
As Hayes explained, he sees pressure coming from higher energy prices tied to the Iran war and inventory restocking, three unnamed large AI IPOs between now and early Q3, and a possible political turn against AI by President Donald Trump before the midterm elections.
Hayes said he thinks market highs could happen between now and September and that it is “time to take profit.”
Read also: Arthur Hayes Market Outlook 2026: Why He Still Thinks Bitcoin Can Go Parabolic
The post immediately raised eyebrows because Hayes had recently been one of the louder public bulls on both tokens.
Last week, Hayes publicly challenged Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital and a long-time Solana backer, to a $100,000 charity bet that HYPE would outperform any current top-10 crypto in dollar terms through year-end.
Samani picked SOL. Hayes then proposed comparing HYPEUSDT and SOLUSDT on Bybit from June 2 through Jan. 1, 2027.
HYPE Rally Meets Hayes Exit
HYPE, the token of decentralized perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid, has been one of the strongest large-cap crypto trades of 2026.
The token recently flipped SOL by price and even surpassed Dogecoin in terms of market capitalization, putting Hyperliquid into the top 10 crypto assets by market cap.
Data from Bitcoin Foundation shows Hyperliquid’s HYPE price fell 7% to $67.5, while NEAR dropped more sharply, sliding nearly 18% to $2.33, though the declines appear to be tied to Bitcoin’s recent slide.
The drop still leaves HYPE near levels that looked far away earlier this year. The token started 2026 near $24 and recently pushed above $73, putting it into price discovery before the latest pullback.
NEAR Call Also Comes Back Into Focus
NEAR, the token of Near Protocol, a Layer-1 blockchain focused on chain abstraction and AI-agent infrastructure, was also part of Hayes’ recent bullish messaging.
In late May, Hayes said on The Rollup podcast that NEAR could have “20x potential” if it becomes a key rail for private cross-chain payments.
He linked the thesis to Zcash, privacy demand and NEAR Intents, a system that lets users move assets across blockchains without manually handling bridges. Now, Hayes says he has sold that position too.
The reaction under Hayes’ post was mainly hostile, to say the least. Some accused him of hyping tokens and then dumping, while others mocked the planned essay as unnecessary after the sale disclosure.
Read more: HYPE Hits All-Time High as Bitcoin Bleeds — Arthur Hayes’ “Holy Trinity” Trade Is Printing Money
