Arthur Hayes Sells 6,400 Ethereum (ETH) in $22.28M Maelstrom Book Exit

6,400 ETH Led the Sales

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said on Oct. 24 that he had closed the directional trading book of his investment firm Maelstrom and taken profits on Ethereum (ETH), Ethena (ENA), Uniswap (UNI) and other holdings. On-chain tracking data published the same day, in a blockchain tracker's Oct. 24 post, tied $22.28 million in token movements to addresses associated with Hayes. The Ethereum (ETH) price does not feature in those disclosures; the dollar figures are the tracker's own marks on the assets moved. Ethereum was the largest line by far at 6,400 ETH worth $15.2 million. Behind it came 14 million ENA valued at $2.76 million and 323,000 UNI, a governance token, valued at $2.24 million. The smaller disposals covered 1.89 million ETHFI worth $1.23 million, 546,609 AERO worth $398,000, 120,000 PENDLE, a token tied to yield farming, worth $244,000 and 3 million ZAMA worth $214,000. In his own words, Hayes described the sales as profit-taking, writing: “I dumped it all.” On the tracker's rounded marks, the list of moved assets runs to seven tokens and $22.28 million in total.

@lookonchain · X post

Blockchain tracker's Oct. 24 post.

View on X

Ethereum (ETH) accounted for roughly 68% of the listed value, with the other six tokens together making up about $7.08 million. ETH, ENA and UNI represented $20.2 million, close to 90.6% of the total, so the exit was concentrated in three names rather than spread evenly across the DeFi and mid-cap altcoin lines on the list. Notably absent is Bitcoin: the reported list carries no BTC sale, and the statement does not separately identify one. It also stops short of a full inventory. Hayes called the positions Maelstrom's directional book, and the posts provide no acquisition prices, realized returns, remaining holdings, hedges or private-market commitments, so the dollar figures describe the tokens moved, not the profit earned. The exit reverses a posture stated two months earlier. In an essay dated Aug. 24, “Same But Different,” Hayes argued that U.S. Treasury buyback operations under Secretary Scott Bessent would loosen dollar liquidity in ways favorable to Bitcoin and other crypto assets, and on Aug. 25 he described Maelstrom as being at maximum risk exposure, naming Bitcoin, Ether, Ethena and Ether.fi among its main positions. He warned then that an upward market could still contain severe corrections.

Down to Go Up

The reasoning behind the exit came in the statement Hayes posted on X. “I think we gotta go down to go up,” he wrote, adding that conditions in “macro and geopolitical land” looked “a bit dicey.” He said he would sit on the sidelines and wait for an all-clear signal before opening new positions, without naming the policy decision, conflict or economic release behind the caution. He set no downside target for Bitcoin or Ethereum (ETH) and no date for rebuilding the book. The reversal is sharper for its timing: nine days earlier, on Oct. 15, Hayes had laid out a bullish case for both assets. He argued then that a serious financial problem at artificial-intelligence companies could force governments and central banks into broad support packages, and that the resulting monetary expansion would support demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum. His Oct. 15 approach, as he described it, was to focus on future liquidity rather than time the AI sector's troubles. That view and the Oct. 24 exit sit nine days apart, and only the latest statement describes where Maelstrom's book stands now.

Depth, Losses and a June Precedent

Our reading: this is one firm's book closing, not a market-wide verdict, and the distinction matters for how the flow should be weighed. On-chain tracking records movements, not fills, and a $15.2 million Ethereum line is small against that market's depth. Recent flow has cut both ways: two early-holder wallets were reported selling 4,000 ETH, Ethereum had already slipped to $2,371 after Nasdaq's slide, and spot funds posted a $110.6M net ETF outflow on Oct. 22, led by BlackRock's ETHA. Hayes-linked wallets have flipped quickly before: tracking data from June tied a sale of 6,000 ETH at an average of $1,690, an estimated $606,000 loss, to a wallet possibly linked to him, days after purchases around $1,793. For now the record shows a closed book and a stated wait, with no signal named for when it reopens.