Onchain Lens monitoring shows that a wallet associated with Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, withdrew 33,979 HYPE on June 8. On-chain sleuth ZachXBT called out Hayes on X, saying that within 15 days he turned bullish on the NEAR, HYPE, ZEC, and Worldcoin tokens and then quickly exited, questioning whether followers became liquidity.
WLD event timeline: confirmed posts and sell-off dates
WLD (Worldcoin) is the core case of this controversy. Hayes’ Maelstrom Fund framed WLD as a “high-beta proxy asset for the AI IPO wave,” using the SpaceX IPO as the argument; on June 4, 2026, Hayes publicly disclosed his holdings on X and said, “The SpaceX IPO will make people go crazy—holding the WLD in your hands.”
Two days later (June 6, 2026), Hayes announced on X that he had fully sold WLD, citing that “the direction of this chart is wrong.” At that time, WLD had already crashed by about 30% from its one-week high. Hayes had also previously publicly sold off ZEC (the reason was reported earlier in an article that the Orchard pool vulnerability casts doubt on the perfectibility of privacy), and in the same ZEC sell-off post he confirmed he still held WLD.
ZachXBT’s allegations and Hayes’ public response
ZachXBT publicly posted on X screenshots of Hayes’ multiple bullish remarks about WLD, placing them side-by-side with the sell-off timing, and pointed out that the same “bullish → exit” pattern also appears with NEAR, HYPE, and ZEC, forming a repetitive operations cycle. ZachXBT’s “exit liquidity” accusation refers to the market price being lifted for a held asset after a KOL publicly turns bullish, while when they leave, the counterparty selling is often the followers who were just persuaded by the posts to enter.
Hayes’ public response on X is as follows: he says it is normal trading that he sells assets at market price to willing buyers; if WLD continues to rise after he sells, critics will say his decision was wrong as well; as for this sell-off, the conclusion is “it just happened that this time I was right.” The response sparked polarized reactions on X: supporters argue Hayes never promised to hold long term, so the buyers bear their own gains and losses; critics counter that by setting target prices loudly on a platform with hundreds of thousands of followers, it itself constitutes an implicit responsibility.
FAQ
What exactly does “exit liquidity” mean in the crypto market?
“Exit liquidity” refers to large holders or influential public figures who sell at a high level after publicly turning bullish on an asset; the counterparty they sell to is precisely the followers or other market participants who bought because of their statements. This concept does not necessarily indicate illegal conduct, but it creates ethical disputes about KOL responsibility and information disclosure.
Is Hayes’ operating timeline for the four coins (NEAR, HYPE, ZEC, WLD) confirmed facts or inferences?
ZachXBT’s allegations are based on transaction records that can be verified on-chain, as well as Hayes’ own public disclosures of his holdings and sell-off statements on X; Onchain Lens also independently observed on-chain activity from the associated wallet. Hayes publicly acknowledged on X the sell-offs of WLD and ZEC, as well as his holdings in WLD and bullish posts, all of which are verifiable public records. ZachXBT’s “pattern” allegation is based on a combined interpretation of these public facts.
How is HYPE’s latest on-chain activity (withdrawing $2.09 million) related to ZachXBT’s allegations?
On June 8, 2026, Onchain Lens monitored Hayes’ associated wallet withdrawing 33,979 HYPE from Bybit (about $2.09 million), and it currently holds 34,066 HYPE. This on-chain activity indicates that Hayes still holds HYPE (not a sell-off), which differs from the timing point in ZachXBT’s accusation that he had already completed the sell-off for HYPE; however, HYPE still falls within the 15-day four-coin operating pattern listed by ZachXBT.
