Arthur Hayes dumps WLD days after Maelstrom’s AI IPO pitch

Maelstrom co-founder Arthur Hayes said he sold his Worldcoin (WLD) holdings just days after his venture capital firm described it as one of the cleanest proxies for the AI investment play. 

“This chart is going in the wrong direction,” Hayes on X on Saturday, showing a chart for the SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures contract, which had fallen sharply.

“Dumped WLD. I’m out. See y’all at the clerb,” he added.

It was only on Wednesday that Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert described Worldcoin as an “overlooked” bet on “AI mega IPOs,” predicting WLD would hit $5 by August.

The investor note led to a short rally for WLD, which topped $0.60 on June 5, but has since fallen back to $0.40 on June 7 as Hayes told his 800,000 X followers that he had exited his position. 

Hayes previously said on X that he would hold WLD through the SpaceX IPO on Nasdaq, which is expected on June 12, prompting some to criticize the timing of the sale. 

The ‘Holy Trinity is dead’ — or is it? 

WLD adds to the list of crypto assets Hayes has pivoted on despite earlier bullish comments. 

In March, Hayes predicted that Hyperliquid (HYPE) would reach $150 by August and on June 1 said it would “outperform any other current top ten crypto in USD terms from now until year-end,” but sold his entire position in the asset three days later, citing higher energy prices due to the Iran war, “inventory restocking,”  and imminent “mega AI IPOs.”

On May 6, Hayes said Zcash would reach 10% of Bitcoin’s price. On June 5, he offloaded his ZEC stash following the discovery of a critical vulnerability in its privacy protocol, claiming that the “Holy Trinity” of HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR was “dead.”

However, Hayes appears to have reversed his position partially. A wallet linked to Hayes bought back around 33,978 HYPE worth around $2 million on Monday, after it had fallen 26% in the wake of his June 4 sale, according to Arkham Intelligence. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Maelstrom for comments but did not receive an immediate response.