Arthur Hayes sells HYPE and NEAR; warns AI IPOs may drain crypto

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, sold his Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Near Protocol (NEAR) token holdings and posted the trades on X on Thursday. He wrote that higher energy costs and a wave of large AI company initial public offerings could draw capital away from cryptocurrency markets and added that it was “time to take profit.” Onchain Lens reported the sale of 247,334 HYPE for about $18 million and an unspecified amount of NEAR. The sales followed a public challenge Hayes made to Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani proposing a $100,000 charity bet that HYPE would outperform every top-10 cryptocurrency by the end of 2026.

Trading data showed HYPE fell about 8.4% to $65 and NEAR declined roughly 17.4% to $2.34 over the prior 24 hours. Hayes had earlier given bullish targets for both tokens, forecasting HYPE could reach $150 by August and suggesting NEAR might appreciate 20-fold by 2027, making the recent sales a reversal from those projections.

Hayes cited three planned AI IPOs as potential competitors for investor funds, naming OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. SpaceX filed a registration in May and is working toward a public listing that could occur in June. Anthropic has named lead underwriters and could target an offering as soon as October. OpenAI is preparing a confidential filing and may pursue a public listing later in the year; prediction-market data indicate most traders expect an IPO by the end of 2026, with fewer expecting one before September.

He also linked possible higher energy prices to the Middle East conflict and predicted a political shift in which former President Donald Trump could adopt an anti-AI stance to aid Republican prospects in the midterms.

Market participants have raised similar concerns that large non-crypto IPOs can pull short-term demand away from digital assets. The extent and timing of any impact depend on investor appetite, allocation choices by large funds, and how quickly newly public companies and their shareholders sell shares.

Hayes’s token sales and his public posts have prompted discussion among traders about how major tech listings and geopolitical factors may affect liquidity in cryptocurrency markets.