Arthur Hayes exits Maelstrom book as $22.28M in token sales surface

What happened

Arthur Hayes has said he shut down Maelstrom's directional trading book, and the onchain tracker Lookonchain reported that roughly $22.28 million of tokens moved out across Ethereum and six other assets. Hayes, who co-founded BitMEX and now runs the Maelstrom family office, announced the decision on X on Oct. 24, 2026, as reported by Crypto.news, CoinGape, Bitcoin.com News and Coinpedia.

In the post, Hayes said he "dumped it all" and had taken profits on ETH, ENA, UNI and other tokens. He described conditions in "macro and geopolitical land" as looking "a bit dicey" and said he would sit on the sidelines until an "all clear signal." He added that he believes the market has to "go down to go up." The statement did not include a price forecast for Bitcoin or Ethereum and set no date for re-entering the market.

Lookonchain's breakdown, published the same day, lists 6,400 ETH valued at $15.2 million as the largest single item. It also names 14 million ENA worth $2.76 million and 323,000 UNI worth $2.24 million, followed by smaller amounts of ETHFI, AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA. Coinpedia reported that some of the tokens were transferred to exchanges, including Binance.

Bitcoin.com News also reported that within minutes of the transfers, Hayes's wallet history filled with 26 transfers of tokens labeled "ETH" between 05:58 and 07:32 UTC that were not real ether. The impostor tokens used look-alike Cyrillic and Greek letters and matched his actual amounts of 1,600 and 3,200, while the destination addresses repeated the first and last four characters of his genuine counterparties, a pattern known as address poisoning. Nothing indicated he sent funds to the decoy addresses.

Why it matters

Hayes's public positioning has drawn attention before, and CoinGape noted that his sale of an entire Hyperliquid position earlier this year was followed by a 4% drop in HYPE. The latest announcement is narrower than it may appear: Hayes referred specifically to the directional book, and neither his post nor the tracker data offered a complete picture of Maelstrom's remaining holdings, hedges or private-market commitments. Lookonchain's dollar figures describe the reported value of the tokens involved rather than the profit realized on them, and Hayes did not publish acquisition prices or returns.

What the data shows

Adding the seven rounded valuations in Lookonchain's list produces $22.286 million, close to the tracker's $22.28 million headline. On that basis, Ethereum represented about 68.2% of the listed value, with the other six tokens combining for $7.086 million. ETH, ENA and UNI together came to $20.2 million, or roughly 90.6% of the total. The calculation relies on rounded dollar amounts and does not establish exact execution proceeds, fees, venues or counterparties, and the tracker's list was not independently reconciled trade by trade.

Background

The exit marks a shift from August, when Hayes described Maelstrom as running at maximum risk exposure, naming Bitcoin, Ether, Ethena and Ether.fi among its main positions. That view appeared in an essay titled "Same Same But Different," dated Aug. 24 on his Substack, which argued that U.S. Treasury efforts to support the government bond market would create favorable conditions for crypto. CoinGape reported that only weeks before the sale he had predicted Ethereum could reach $10,000. Earlier in the year, his June 8 essay "Reality Test" disclosed sales of Hyperliquid, Near Protocol, Worldcoin and Zcash as a defensive response to macro risk, while keeping Bitcoin and Ethereum as core holdings. Lookonchain later reported that a Hayes-linked wallet sold 6,000 ETH for about $10.14 million at an average price of $1,690 in June, estimating a loss of $606,000.

What is still unclear

The announcement did not identify a Bitcoin sale, and it did not disclose what Maelstrom still holds. Hayes called the disposals profit-taking but did not say what the positions cost. The posts also did not give a transaction-by-transaction account of where the tokens were sold. Coinpedia attributed Hayes's caution to Middle East tensions following a missile strike in Saudi Arabia, Brent crude above $113 a barrel and U.S. inflation reported at 3.7%, but Hayes's own statement named no specific policy decision, conflict or economic release.

What to watch

The main question is whether Hayes returns to directional trading and on what timeline; he has not indicated one. Near-term attention will also fall on whether ETH, ENA and UNI absorb selling pressure as the market digests the disclosure. Bitcoin.com News noted that at the time of its report ether traded near $2,370, down about 1% on the day, while ENA and UNI had each fallen roughly 5% and Bitcoin hovered near $80,600 after its first daily close below the 50-day moving average since August.

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