Arthur Hayes Dumps Worldcoin Days After Maelstrom Pitched Its AI IPO Trade

Arthur Hayes sold his entire Worldcoin (WLD) position on June 6, less than three days after Maelstrom, his investment firm, publicly pitched the token as a liquid route into the AI IPO wave. WLD fell more than 25% in the hours after Hayes disclosed the exit on X.

The move completes the dissolution of what Hayes had called his “Holy Trinity” portfolio of high-conviction altcoin positions. He exited Hyperliquid (HYPE) and NEAR on June 4, then dumped Zcash (ZEC) on June 5 after disclosure of the Orchard shielded-pool vulnerability. WLD was the last position standing.

The Exit

In a June 6 post on X, Hayes wrote: “This chart is going in the wrong direction. Dumped $WLD. I’m out. See y’all at the clerb.”

The post attached a screenshot of the SpaceX perp chart, the proxy Hayes had used to track AI-IPO-cycle momentum. When that indicator turned, so did his WLD thesis, he said.

The timing drew immediate criticism. On-chain investigator ZachXBT noted that Hayes had publicly backed NEAR, HYPE, ZEC, and WLD in sequence before exiting each. Hayes defended the sale, saying he sold to a willing buyer at a mutually agreed price and that his trading objectives had simply changed. He did not announce a formal position size for WLD or a cost basis.

Maelstrom’s Thesis

On June 3, Maelstrom published an investor note arguing that WLD was “overlooked” exposure to the AI mega-IPO cycle. Researcher Lukas Ruppert cited Worldcoin’s connection to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a scheduled 43% reduction in daily WLD token unlocks from July 24, and a “textbook short overhang” from a March OTC round as reasons to favor the token. Maelstrom’s note projected WLD could reach $5 by August.

The note helped push WLD from roughly $0.33 to a peak above $0.62 by June 5, a gain of roughly 88% in under two weeks, per CoinGecko data. By June 6, when Hayes announced the exit, WLD had already started pulling back. It fell to around $0.40 on the disclosure, per CoinGecko.

WLD currently trades at $0.49, up 2.9% over the past 24 hours and still up roughly 84% over the past 30 days, per CoinGecko. Market cap sits at $1.69 billion; fully diluted valuation is $4.99 billion.

The “Holy Trinity” Context

The “Holy Trinity” framing originated with Hayes himself. On Scott Melker’s show on June 5, Hayes said he “had to dump out the entire ZEC bag” after the Orchard pool bug disclosure, declaring the Holy Trinity dead. He had used that phrase to describe his trio of high-conviction altcoin bets — HYPE, NEAR, and ZEC — built around the thesis that a wave of AI-related capital and upcoming tech IPOs would lift select crypto assets.

WLD was Hayes’s replacement thesis after ZEC fell. Its duration as a conviction position lasted fewer than 72 hours between the Maelstrom note and the exit post.

HYPE and NEAR

Hayes announced the HYPE and NEAR exits in a June 4 post on X, writing: “I just dumped my entire $HYPE and $NEAR position.”

He cited higher energy prices from the Iran conflict, three AI mega-IPOs expected before early Q3, and his view that Trump could adopt an anti-AI posture ahead of the midterms. He said he would explain the full thesis in an essay titled “Reality Test,” due the following Tuesday.

That same broader macro call — AI IPOs arriving and absorbing liquidity, traditional markets peaking before September — was the thesis behind the WLD bet as well. When the SpaceX perp chart began moving against him, Hayes read it as confirmation that the thesis had broken.