Key takeaways
- A wallet linked to Hayes sold 115,453 HYPE at $54.81, then bought back 85,714 at $62.69 per token.
- HYPE reached an all-time high of $64.24 on May 24, 2026, with 24-hour trading volume exceeding $1.2 billion.
- Hayes maintains a HYPE price target of $150 for August 2026 and still holds a long bitcoin position of $38.9 million.
The redemption that solved the mystery
When onchain tracking company Lookonchain reported that a Hayes-linked wallet had deposited 115,453 HYPE worth $6.33 million into Bybit on May 23, the move raised questions, especially since just weeks earlier, Hayes had recently made a bullish $150 price call on the token’s price (even though its wallet activity suggested a potential sell-off).
This question is now answered as the deposit was confirmed as a sale at an average of $54.81 per token. The same wallet then withdrew 85,714 HYPE (worth $5.37 million) from Bybit at $62.69 per token, approximately three hours before the survey was published. In total, Hayes-related activity cashed out a larger position at $54.81 and bought back a smaller one at about $8 more per token.
In a widely read essay Published earlier this year, Hayes named Hyperliquid as his most compelling position and set a $150 price target for HYPE by August 2026. His outlook hinges on Hyperliquid’s revenue model, which directs about 97% of trading fees toward buying back HYPE on the open market, a structure he says makes it the most capital efficient token. decentralized finance ( Challenge).
HYPE Rally Adds Context to Hayes-Linked Wallet Activity
HYPE’s performance has since validated much of this underlying thesis, with the token reaching an all-time high of $64.24 on May 24, while the platform processed over $176 billion in 30 days. trade volume with open interest exceeding $8 billion. The network has generated over $896 million in revenue over the past 12 months, placing it among the most profitable DeFi protocols in operation.
The portfolio attributed to Hayes also has a long position of 504.4 BTC worth approximately $38.9 million and a short position of 57,460 ZEC currently at a loss, indicating broad multi-asset exposure across the book. As with all on-chain portfolio assignments, the connection to Hayes is based on analyst pooling methodology and has not been confirmed by Hayes himself.
Finally, for broader context on the HYPE short landscape, Bitcoin.com News reported last week that a hyperliquid trader known as Loracle continued to defend a $103 million HYPE short sale as prices climbed toward a liquidation level near $69.90.
