Hyperliquid Drops 8.8% as Hayes Sells $18M HYPE Stack Amid Q3 AI IPO Wave

Hyperliquid News

Hyperliquid's HYPE token slid sharply after one of its most prominent backers announced he had liquidated his entire stake, walking back a $150 price target issued only days earlier. Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder and chief investment officer of family office Maelstrom, said on X that he had dumped the position and was taking profit ahead of what he expects to be a broader market top. The disclosure dragged HYPE back from highs near $75 to roughly $67, though the token still holds a year-to-date gain above 70%. Trading desks reacted within minutes, with sell pressure cascading through the order book.

Hayes framed the decision around several macro catalysts he believes will pressure risk assets through the third quarter. He cited rising energy prices linked to the Middle East conflict, three forthcoming mega artificial intelligence initial public offerings expected before September, and a political scenario in which the Trump administration pivots toward an anti-AI stance to court midterm voters. He argued that the combined liquidity drain from SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic listings could siphon capital away from speculative crypto positions. His call for an interim market peak between June and September contrasts sharply with his earlier bull market roadmap for HYPE.

On-chain data corroborated the timing and scale of the exit. Wallet tracking flagged a transfer of 247,334 HYPE tokens worth approximately $18 million, executed shortly after Hayes had publicly challenged Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani to a $100,000 charity wager that HYPE would outperform every top-ten cryptocurrency through year-end 2026. The juxtaposition fueled criticism across crypto circles, with DeFiance Capital's Arthur Cheong describing the move as the hallmark of an operator who over-trades his book. The episode highlights how single-wallet movements on transparent ledgers can immediately reshape sentiment for high-beta altcoin positions.

The same wallet reportedly offloaded an undisclosed quantity of Near Protocol's NEAR token alongside the HYPE position. NEAR sank 17.4% to $2.34 in the twenty-four hours that followed, a steeper drawdown than HYPE itself absorbed. Hayes had previously projected a twenty-fold rally for NEAR by 2027, anchoring both calls in a broader thesis around onchain infrastructure and AI-adjacent compute demand. The abrupt reversal drew commentary from large crypto accounts questioning why traders continue to treat his public positioning as actionable signal, given the velocity of his sentiment shifts. Several analysts pointed to the episode as a case study in narrative-driven concentration risk.

Beyond the headline trade, Hyperliquid's underlying business metrics remain among the strongest in onchain derivatives. The platform clears close to $40 billion in weekly perpetual futures turnover and over $1 billion in spot volume, having captured meaningful share from centralized venues that historically dominated leverage markets. Its order-book model executes settlement on a purpose-built blockchain, allowing traders to monitor positions and liquidations transparently. The protocol has also become a reference venue for weekend commodity pricing and pre-IPO equity proxies, broadening its addressable market beyond crypto-native flows. Fundamentals therefore stand in sharp contrast to the token's short-term volatility.

The selloff coincided with broader weakness across digital assets, with Bitcoin retesting its 2026 lows near $60,000 and Ether trading around $1,776. Despite the synchronized drawdown, HYPE remains up roughly 166% year-to-date, ranking it among the best-performing large-capitalization tokens of the cycle. Equity markets sent a divergent signal: the Nasdaq reversed an early 1.3% decline to finish the session positive, lifted by Nvidia, Google and Oracle even as Broadcom dropped 13% on disappointing guidance. The split between recovering tech equities and a stalling decentralized exchange token sector underscores the rotational dynamics now at play.

HYPE trades at $66.90 after an 8.79% daily decline, with RSI at 60.13 and the MACD still printing a bullish crossover despite the pullback. Immediate support sits at $65.16, with deeper bids stacked at $61.24 and $56.81; the broader uptrend remains intact while price holds above those levels. Resistance clusters at $70.13 and $75.71, with the macro target of $89.30 requiring fresh accumulation. A daily close beneath $61 would invalidate the bullish structure and open a path toward $56, while reclaiming $70 would re-establish momentum and challenge the recent all-time high zone.