Hayes brushed off the criticism, stating that he merely sold to willing buyers in the market.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has accused BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes of engaging in a recurring pattern of touting crypto assets to his audience before rapidly selling his own holdings.
The allegations, made over the weekend, involve four crypto assets, including Hyperliquid (HYPE), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), Zcash (ZEC), and Worldcoin (WLD). ZachXBT claimed Hayes publicly shared bullish views on these coins before quietly unwinding his positions shortly thereafter.
Hayes disclosed on Saturday that he had exited his WLD position, stating that the token’s chart was “going in the wrong direction.”
The announcement followed a number of bullish comments on WLD made shortly after he exited positions in HYPE, NEAR, and ZEC, a group he previously dubbed his “holy trinity.”
At the time, Hayes and his family office, Maelstrom, were promoting Worldcoin as a potentially overlooked AI-related investment. The thesis was that WLD could offer investors a publicly traded avenue to gain exposure to the ecosystem surrounding OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as markets speculate on future AI-sector IPOs.
Responding to ZachXBT, Hayes dismissed the allegations, saying he sold to willing buyers at prevailing market prices. He argued that if the market had continued higher, he would have looked foolish for selling.
The crypto investor added that he “just happened to call it right this time” based on his trading goals.
