Arthur Hayes dumps HYPE and NEAR, holds WLD into SpaceX IPO

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and the crypto-focused Maelstrom Fund, has joined the growing list of analysts treating the upcoming SpaceX IPO as a bearish catalyst for crypto. According to Hayes, the upcoming listings (SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI) have nudged him to rebalance his altcoin portfolio. He dumped his entire Hyperliquid [HYPE] and Near Protocol [NEAR] bags, declaring it was "time to take profit."

For the SpaceX IPO scheduled for next week, however, Hayes framed it as a positive for Worldcoin [WLD]. "The SpaceX IPO is going to melt people's faces off. Holding the $WLD through the listing next week." He may be bullish on Worldcoin because of the protocol's focus on human identification in the era of AI and AI agents.

WLD surged 12% in the past 24 hours. That said, Hayes's commentary has a track record of being less a forecast and more a signal to fade. Several of his bullish posts have been quickly followed by sizeable sell-offs from his fund. Earlier this week, he put out a bullish "HYPE to $100" call — and then reported exiting his entire position three days later.

It's why many watchers treat his bullish posts as a convenient way to scout exit liquidity for his own trades. While the same skepticism could apply to his WLD call, the broader bearish pressure from AI IPOs has been documented by other reputable analysts.

Meanwhile, altcoin investors also trimmed positions as Bitcoin extended its slide this week. CryptoQuant data shows Altcoin Exchange Inflows (capital moving into altcoins) dropped across exchanges including Binance and Coinbase — a sign that altcoin traders shifted into risk-off mode as BTC touched February lows.

Whether losses deepen in the second half of June remained unclear. Notably, the altcoin season index sat near a neutral 49 despite this week's pullback. The metric is a lagging indicator, but it suggested relative strength in the altcoin sector even as BTC crashed.

On the whole, AI IPO-driven pressure may open a discounted window to scoop up top altcoin gems like HYPE — assuming one trusts the same setups that just got dumped on.