Arthur Hayes has exited his Worldcoin position days after publicly backing the token as an AI-related investment, a move that has drawn criticism from market participants and coincided with a sharp decline in WLD’s price.
Summary
- Arthur Hayes sold his Worldcoin holdings days after Maelstrom promoted WLD as a beneficiary of upcoming AI IPOs and projected a $5 price target.
- The timing of the sale drew criticism from on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who questioned whether Hayes’ public endorsements created exit liquidity for followers.
- Hayes defended the move, saying he sold to a willing buyer and that the decision was based on his trading goals as market conditions changed.
According to posts published by the Maelstrom co-founder on X on June 7, Hayes sold his WLD (WLD) holdings after concluding that market conditions had changed.
Sharing a chart tied to the SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures contract, Hayes wrote that the chart was “going in the wrong direction” and announced that he had dumped his WLD position.
The sale came less than a week after Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert described Worldcoin as an “overlooked” way to gain exposure to upcoming AI mega IPOs. In a June 4 investor note, Ruppert predicted that WLD could reach $5 by August, helping fuel a rally that briefly pushed the token above $0.60.
By June 7, however, WLD had fallen back to around $0.40. Earlier reporting by crypto.news showed the token dropped more than 25% after Hayes disclosed the exit, erasing a large portion of its recent gains.
Timing of WLD exit sparks debate
Questions about the timing of the sale quickly surfaced across the crypto community.
In a June 6 post on X, on-chain investigator ZachXBT asked how much “exit liquidity” may have been created from Hayes’ followers after he publicly supported NEAR, HYPE, ZEC, and WLD before later selling those positions.
ZachXBT also pointed to Hayes’ repeated bullish comments on Worldcoin, noting that the investor had discussed significantly higher price targets before exiting the trade shortly afterward.
Responding on X, Hayes rejected the criticism. He said he had sold to a willing buyer at a price agreed by both parties and argued that prices could have moved higher after his sale. Hayes added that the timing simply aligned with his trading objectives.
Public scrutiny intensified because Hayes had previously told followers that he intended to hold WLD through the anticipated June 12 SpaceX IPO on Nasdaq. His decision to exit beforehand surprised some traders who had viewed the token as one of his highest-conviction AI-related positions.
Hayes unloads NEAR and HYPE
The Worldcoin sale also followed a string of rapid portfolio changes from Hayes.
On June 4, he disclosed that he had sold his entire HYPE (HYPE) and NEAR (NEAR) positions despite earlier describing HYPE as one of his strongest liquid crypto investments and projecting a $150 price target by August.
Hayes attributed that decision to factors including higher energy prices linked to the Iran conflict, inventory restocking, expected AI IPOs, and political uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence policy in the United States.
A day later, Hayes exited Zcash after details emerged about a vulnerability affecting the Orchard shielded pool. Explaining the decision on X, he said privacy-focused assets required a very high standard of certainty and added that his earlier investment thesis no longer held under those conditions.
At the time, Hayes declared that the “Holy Trinity” of HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR was dead. Yet the story took another turn this week when Arkham Intelligence data showed a wallet linked to Hayes purchased roughly 33,978 HYPE tokens worth about $2 million after the asset had fallen following his previous sale.
