BitMEX Co-Founder Arthur Hayes Dumps HYPE and NEAR Tokens

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he dumped his Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Near Protocol (NEAR) token holdings, reversing course after previously assigning aggressive upside targets to both assets.

Hayes cited higher energy prices due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, three forthcoming “mega AI IPOs” by the third quarter of 2026 and predictions that US President Donald Trump would turn “anti-AI” to help Republicans win the US midterm elections.

“I think highs in mrkts will happen btw now and September,” wrote Hayes in a Thursday X post, adding that it was “time to take profit.”

The sales mark a drastic pivot from Hayes, who previously assigned aggressive bullish price targets for both altcoins. He predicted that HYPE could reach $150 by August and NEAR may see a 20x rally by 2027.

Blockchain data platform Onchain Lens confirmed that Hayes sold 247,334 HYPE for about $18 million and an unknown amount of NEAR, adding that the sales came shortly after Hayes publicly challenged Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani to a $100,000 charity bet, claiming that HYPE will outperform every top-10 cryptocurrency by the end of 2026.

Source: Arthur Hayes

HYPE fell 8.4% to $65, while NEAR fell 17.4% to $2.34 over the past 24 hours, according to TradingView data.

HYPE and NEAR, one-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Could AI IPOs drain crypto market liquidity ahead of Q3 2026?

Hayes’s selling comes as investors eagerly anticipate three long-awaited AI company initial public offerings (IPOs), including from ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

SpaceX reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO in early April, with anonymous sources saying that the IPO could be finalized as early as June. SpaceX filed an S-1 registration statement in May, as part of its bid to become a public company on June 12.

Related: Polymarket users cry foul after Strategy sale market resolves to ‘no’

Anthropic reportedly selected Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to lead its IPO and is weighing going public as soon as October, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

OpenAI IPO on prediction market by odds. Source: Polymarket.com

OpenAI has also been preparing a confidential IPO filing and could go public as early as September, Reuters reported on May 20.

While the timeline is still unclear, 74% of traders expect OpenAI’s IPO to occur by December 31, while only 35% expect it to occur before September 30, data from prediction market Polymarket shows.

Still, some industry participants worry that the AI IPOs could spell bad news for Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency markets, as the growing interest in the offerings may drain more liquidity from the cryptocurrency market.