BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated he dumped his Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Close to Protocol (NEAR) token holdings, reversing course after beforehand assigning aggressive upside targets to each property.
Hayes cited larger power costs as a result of ongoing Center East battle, three forthcoming “mega AI IPOs” by the third quarter of 2026 and predictions that US President Donald Trump would flip “anti-AI” to assist Republicans win the US midterm elections.
“I feel highs in mrkts will occur btw now and September,” wrote Hayes in a Thursday X submit, including that it was “time to take revenue.”
The gross sales mark a drastic pivot from Hayes, who beforehand assigned aggressive bullish worth targets for each altcoins. He predicted that HYPE may attain $150 by August and NEAR may even see a 20x rally by 2027.
Blockchain information platform Onchain Lens confirmed that Hayes bought 247,334 HYPE for about $18 million and an unknown quantity of NEAR, including that the gross sales got here shortly after Hayes publicly challenged Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani to a $100,000 charity wager, claiming that HYPE will outperform each top-10 cryptocurrency by the top of 2026.
Supply: Arthur Hayes
HYPE fell 8.4% to $65, whereas NEAR fell 17.4% to $2.34 over the previous 24 hours, based on TradingView information.
HYPE and NEAR, one-month chart. Supply: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Might AI IPOs drain crypto market liquidity forward of Q3 2026?
Hayes’s promoting comes as buyers eagerly anticipate three long-awaited AI firm preliminary public choices (IPOs), together with from ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
SpaceX reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO in early April, with nameless sources saying that the IPO could possibly be finalized as early as June. SpaceX filed an S-1 registration assertion in Could, as a part of its bid to turn out to be a public firm on June 12.
Associated: Polymarket customers cry foul after Technique sale market resolves to ‘no’
Anthropic reportedly chosen Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to guide its IPO and is weighing going public as quickly as October, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing individuals aware of the matter.
OpenAI IPO on prediction market by odds. Supply: Polymarket.com
OpenAI has additionally been getting ready a confidential IPO submitting and will go public as early as September, Reuters reported on Could 20.
Whereas the timeline continues to be unclear, 74% of merchants anticipate OpenAI’s IPO to happen by December 31, whereas solely 35% anticipate it to happen earlier than September 30, information from prediction market Polymarket reveals.
Nonetheless, some trade individuals fear that the AI IPOs may spell dangerous information for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency markets, because the rising curiosity within the choices might drain extra liquidity from the cryptocurrency market.
