‘Time to take profit’ – Arthur Hayes dumps HYPE, NEAR before SpaceX IPO

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX exchange and crypto-focused Maelstrom Fund, has joined the list of analysts viewing the upcoming SpaceX IPO as a bearish catalyst for the crypto market. 

According to him, the upcoming IPOs (SpaceX, Athropic, and OpenAI) have forced him to rebalance his altcoin portfolio. He dumped his entire Hyperliquid [HYPE] and Near protocol [NEAR], noting that it was “time to take profit.” 

However, for the SpaceX IPO scheduled for next week, Hayes billed it as positive to Worldcoin [WLD]. 

The SpaceX IPO is going to melt people’s faces off. Holding the $WLD through the listing next week.

Perhaps, he was bullish on Worldcoin because of the protocol’s focus on human identification in the era of AI and AI agents. The altcoin surged 12% in the past 24 hours. 

But it is worth pointing out that Hayes’ comments are sometimes cues to take a contrarian trade. Some of his bullish posts in the past were immediately followed by a massive sell-off by his fund.

For example, he made a bullish ‘HYPE to $100’ call earlier in the week, only to report that he exited his entire holdings three days later. 

In fact, that’s why most watchers sometimes view his bullish posts as a way to look for exit liquidity for his trades. 

Although the above skepticism could be applied to Hayes’s WLD call, the potential bearish pressure from AI IPOs has been well documented by other reputable analysts. 

Altcoin inflows dip with BTC slump

That said, altcoin investors also slightly trimmed their positions as Bitcoin extended its plunge this week. According to CryptoQuant, Altcoin Exchange Inflows (capital buying altcoins) dropped across all exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase. 

In other words, some altcoin traders were in a risk-off mode as BTC dropped to February lows. Whether the losses will intensify in the second half of June was unclear. 

But it was surprising that the altcoin season index was nearly at a neutral level (49) despite this week’s pullback. Even though the metric is a lagging indicator, it showed the relative strength of the altcoin sector amid BTC’s crash. 

Overall, the AI IPO-driven pressure may offer a discounted window to grab some of the top altcoin gems like HYPE. 

Final Summary

• Arthur Hayes dumped his altcoin holdings, including HYPE and NEAR, citing upcoming IPOs as bearish catalysts. 
• The altcoin sector showed relative strength amid the BTC crash, but whether the pattern holds ahead of next week’s SpaceX IPO was unclear.