Arthur Hayes exits HYPE after predicting 126x upside

TL;DR Breakdown

Arthur Hayes sold 96,628 HYPE ($5.1M) for a 19% profit, despite earlier touting a 126x upside.
HYPE dipped 5%, but is still +117% YTD at ~$52 with $347M daily volume.
Whale Techno Revenant withdrew 2.39M HYPE ($122M), sitting on $90M gains.

Arthur Hayes has cashed out of Hype, just weeks after touting massive upside for the token. The former BitMEX CEO sold all 96,628 HYPE tokens he acquired in August (approx worth $5.1 million), locking in a profit of roughly $823,000 (19.2% profit). The exit contrasts sharply with Hayes’s remarks at the WebX Summit on Aug. 25, where he predicted a potential 126x upside for the token.

Hyperliquid price dipped by almost 5% over the last 24 hours. This fall comes in after posting huge rallies. HYPE price is still running up by 117% on a year-to-date basis (YTD). It is trading at an average price of $51.96 at the press time. Its 24 hour trading volume spiked by 70% to hit $347 million.

HYPE Faces Profit-Taking Fears

Hayes’ move comes as whale activity in HYPE intensifies. Data provided by LookOnChain shows a wallet linked to Techno Revenant recently withdrew 2.39 million HYPE (approx worth $122 million). The whale acquired the tokens roughly nine months ago at an estimated cost basis of around $12. With this position, the whale is now sitting on over $90 million in unrealized gains. However, sudden moves have pushed speculation that a huge profit booking event might be around.

While HYPE draws mixed signals from insiders and whales, attention in the decentralized exchange space has shifted toward Aster, a new on-chain perpetuals platform. According to DefiLlama, Aster processed about $793 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours, overtaking Hyperliquid’s $462 million. The surge pushed Aster into the top six DEXs by daily volume, while Hyperliquid slid to ninth.

Though Aster’s weekly volumes remain smaller, the sudden spike suggests growing trader interest. It stood at around $1.79 billion versus Hyperliquid’s $5.78 billion.

Much of the momentum has been linked to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who praised Aster’s design, particularly its multi-chain support and “hidden orders” feature. Hidden orders allow users to place trades without broadcasting positions across the network, helping reduce front-running and price manipulation.

“Aster is not a BNB Chain exclusive perp DEX. It supports multiple chains natively. It also supports hidden orders. Different from other perp DEX designs,” Zhao said in a recent post.

The platform’s rise has coincided with a meteoric rally in its native token, which soared more than 800% in the past week to briefly hit an all-time high near $2. On-chain trackers such as Lookonchain flagged several profitable whale trades, including influencer CookerFlips, who turned a $1.24 million ASTER position into about $5 million in just three days.