XRP’s (XRP) onchain activity has contracted sharply since its 2025 peak. The 90-day network fee average fell by 91.5%, while the realized profit-to-loss ratio dropped to 0.38 from 50, according to Glassnode. 

The decline in activity and profitability comes as traders identify the $1.00-$0.65 region as a major area of interest.  

XRP profit-taking flips to network capitulation

According to Glassnode, the 90-day simple moving average of total fees paid on the XRP network has fallen to just 500 XRP from 5,900 XRP in February, a decline of 91.5%.

The network fees are often used as a proxy for transaction demand. The drop points to a sharp slowdown in activity following the speculative surge that carried XRP above $3 in the first half of 2025.

XRP total transaction fees. Source: Glassnode

XRP investor behavior has also shifted. Glassnode reported that XRP’s 90-day realized profit-to-loss ratio has fallen to 0.38, meaning market participants are realizing $1 in losses for every $0.38 in profits.

In January and July 2025, when the XRP price peaked near $3.40, the ratio reached 50 as profit-taking dominated the onchain flows. That balance has now reversed. This indicates that a larger share of onchain coins are being sold below their acquisition cost, a pattern commonly seen during capitulation phases.

XRP realized profit/loss ratio. Source: Glassnode

Exchange data offers a different view of holder activity. Crypto analyst Pelin Ay noted that transfers of more than 1 million XRP to Binance have declined since XRP’s 2025 peak. 

Historically, major corrections were preceded by sharp increases in both the 100,000–1 million XRP and 1 million-plus XRP inflow cohorts as large holders moved tokens to exchanges. 

The current data shows a sustained decline in exchange-bound XRP from large holders, with inflows from the 100,000–1 million XRP and 1 million-plus XRP cohorts decreasing by 15% and 20%, respectively, since October 2025. 

The analyst said the latest price weakness appears more closely tied to leverage-driven liquidations and risk-off sentiment than aggressive distribution by large holders.

XRP exchange inflows value bands on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant

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

$0.63 is the key area for accumulation

XRP’s weekly chart highlights a cluster of technical levels between $1.00 and $0.65.

A large fair value gap spans roughly $0.63 to $1.00, created during XRP’s rapid rally in late 2024. The price has already started moving back toward that zone after losing support near $1.40.

XRP/USDT, one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The visible-range volume profile data shows relatively light trading activity below current levels until a high-volume node around $0.50–$0.65. The point of control, which marks the price area with the highest traded volume, sits near $0.52–$0.55.

The same region aligns with XRP’s five-year ascending trendline, projected to intersect near $0.60–$0.65 in the coming months.

Some traders are already treating the zone as an accumulation range. Trader Crypto Patel identified $1.00 to $0.60 as a preferred buying range, while market analyst Javon Marks maintained his long-term breakout target of $15–$18, representing a 1,100% increase. 

XRP long-term analysis by Javon Marks. Source: X

Related: ETH crash to $1K looms if key support breaks: Will futures traders step in?

BEAT, the native token of AI music platform Audiera, has exploded higher over the past month, surging more than 1,500% to a record high of $9.20 even as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell roughly 25% and 30%, respectively, in the same period.

BEAT/USD vs. BTC/USD and ETH/USD 1-month price performance. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

Strong platform revenues mixed with excessive short liquidations send BEAT’s price higher.The AI token is now at its most overbought stage, which may prompt a 35% dip in the coming days.

Why is Audiera’s BEAT price up so much?

BEAT’s sharp outperformance has turned it into one of crypto’s hottest AI-linked trades, driven by a mix of platform revenue claims, token burns, and short liquidations.

Audiera revenue and token burns strengthen BEAT bull case

BEAT’s rally has gained momentum from Audiera’s revenue-and-burn model, which has given traders a stronger value-capture story to chase.

The project reported 772,045 BEAT in weekly revenue between June 1 and June 8, worth about $2.87 million at its stated price of $3.712. During the same period, Audiera said it burned 770,545 BEAT, taking the total burned supply to 12.35 million BEAT.

Source: X

Burns reduce BEAT’s available or future supply against its fixed 1 billion-token cap, strengthening the scarcity narrative when demand is rising.

This resembles Hyperliquid’s HYPE token economics, which have seen 120% price gains so far in 2026.

Related: Hyperliquid bear turns bullish after losing over $46M shorting HYPE

However, Hyperliquid has already shown strong product-market fit in perpetual trading, while Audiera’s model remains newer and less tested. That leaves BEAT vulnerable to sharp profit-taking if revenue slows, burn activity weakens, or speculative demand cools.

Short squeeze helps fuel BEAT rally

BEAT’s rally has received a strong boost from derivatives liquidations, particularly from traders betting against higher prices.

Since May, BEAT has seen $28.72 million in short liquidations, compared with $13.74 million in long liquidations. That means bearish traders lost more than twice as much as bullish traders during the rally.

BEAT’s daily aggregated liquidation bar chart. Source: TradingView

This imbalance points to a classic short squeeze. As the BEAT price kept rising, traders holding short positions were forced to close their bets. Since closing a short position requires buying back the token, those liquidations added more upward pressure to the price.

That helped turn BEAT’s rally from a strong uptrend into a vertical move.

However, it also means part of the surge came from forced buying rather than steady spot demand. Once short-liquidation pressure fades, BEAT may need fresh buyers to keep the rally going.

BEAT price may decline 35% in June

BEAT’s price explosion over the past month has made its relative strength index (RSI), which gauges momentum, the most overbought on record.

As of Thursday, BEAT’s daily RSI reading was 96.87, way above its overbought threshold of 70. In other words, the Audiera token’s rally remains vulnerable to a sharp pullback if buyers lose momentum or early investors start booking profits.

BEAT/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView

A decisive pullback from the $9.47 resistance level, which aligns with the 1.618 Fibonacci retracement line, increases the odds of BEAT falling toward the 1.0 Fib line at around $3.71, down roughly 35% from the current price, in June.

Conversely, a clear breakout above the $9.47 resistance level raises BEAT’s potential to rise toward its 4.236 Fib line above the $15 mark in the coming weeks.

XRP (XRP) charts are painting multiple bearish patterns this month with a downside target under $1.

Key takeaways:

XRP is forming head-and-shoulders and bear flag setups on its shorter-time frame chart.An onchain metric is further signaling weak demand or capitulation sentiment among traders.

Head-and-shoulders setup hints at 10% XRP decline

Since June 5, the XRP price has formed what appears to be a head-and-shoulders (H&S) pattern.

The setup develops when the price forms three peaks atop a common neckline support, where the middle peak, called the “head,” is higher than the other two, the “shoulders.”

An H&S pattern typically resolves when the price breaks decisively below the neckline support, with its downside target measured by subtracting the breakdown level from the structure’s maximum height.

XRP/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView

As of Thursday, XRP was forming the pattern’s right shoulder, eyeing an initial dip toward the neckline near $1.09.

Applying the technical rule, the target for June is around $0.99, down roughly 10%, if the price breaks below the neckline.

Conversely, a clear break above the right shoulder’s peak at around $1.12, a level also aligning with the 20-period exponential moving average (20-period EMA, green) on the four-hour chart, may invalidate the H&S pattern.

In that case, XRP may rally toward the 50-period EMA (red) near $1.15, up 4.5% from the current price levels.

Another bearish setup hints at a lower XRP price target

XRP’s four-hour chart also shows a bear flag, adding weight to the sub-$1 bearish outlook.

A bear flag forms when the price consolidates inside a rising channel after a sharp sell-off. It typically signals a pause before the prior downtrend resumes.

XRP/USD four-hour chart. Source: TradingView

As of Thursday, XRP was testing the flag’s lower trendline near $1.10. A decisive four-hour close below this level could confirm the breakdown.

Applying the technical rule, XRP’s bear flag target sits near $0.94, down roughly 15% from current prices.

The relative strength index (RSI) near 43 supports the bearish view, showing weak momentum below the neutral 50 level.

However, a rebound above $1.12 would weaken the setup. A stronger move above the 50-period EMA near $1.15 could delay the selloff and send XRP toward the flag’s upper trend line near $1.18–$1.20.

On-chain data points to dip toward $0.96

XRP’s MVRV pricing bands suggest the price still has room to fall toward the lower green zone.

XRP MVRV extreme deviation pricing bands. Source: Glassnode

For new traders, MVRV compares XRP’s market price with the average price at which coins last moved onchain. In simple terms, it shows whether holders are sitting on large paper profits or losses.

When price trades near the upper bands, the market is usually overheated. When it falls toward the lower bands, it often signals stress, weak demand, or capitulation.

Related: XRP transaction demand falls 91.5% as traders focus on $0.65 support

That lower green band has acted like a bear-market magnet for XRP in previous cycles. It declined toward or below the same zone during major downturns in 2018, 2020 and 2022 before finding stronger support later.

The next major downside target sits near the green lower band near $0.96, about 13% below current prices if history repeats.

SpaceX’s IPO is already spilling into crypto markets, where one whale has opened a $22.3 million leveraged long on SPCX, a synthetic pre-IPO perpetual contract tied to Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

Key takeaways:

The whale is already sitting on more than $1.15 million in unrealized profit.Synthetic SPCX is trading near $175, roughly 30% above SpaceX’s $135 IPO price.

Whale’s paper profits are over $1.15 million already

The whale’s position, visible on data resource Hypurrscan, shows the trader holding a 2x isolated long on “xyz:SPCX” worth about $22.29 million.

Address 0x9cc1… open perpetual positions as of Friday. Source: Hypurrscan

The whale entered near $168, while SPCX recently traded around $175, leaving the position with roughly $1.15 million in unrealized profit. It had spent just over $500 in funding fees.

Synthetic SPCX trades at 30% premium ahead of IPO

SpaceX has priced its IPO at $135 per share to raise $75 billion by selling about 555.6 million shares, bringing the company’s valuation to around $1.77 trillion. The stock is expected to trade under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq.

At around $175, the synthetic SPCX market is trading about 30% above the IPO price. In other words, crypto traders are already pricing in a strong first-day rally before regular equity markets fully absorb the listing.

SPCX/USDC hourly chart. Source: Hyperliquid

Other secondary markets are pointing in the same direction. For instance, IG International derivatives implied a SpaceX valuation of about $2.4 trillion, more than 35% above the valuation set by the IPO price.

Polymarket traders put 56% odds on SpaceX closing its first trading day in the $2 trillion–2.5 trillion market cap range.

SpaceX IPO closing market cap. Source: Polymarket

History of IPOs warns of a strong SPCX correction after debut

The 30% SPCX premium points to strong opening demand, but IPO history argues against chasing the first trade.

US IPOs from 2020 to 2025 averaged roughly 30% first-day gains, according to Jay Ritter’s IPO database. However, that upside mostly benefits investors who receive shares at the offer price.

US IPO average first-day returns. Source: Jay Ritter/IPO Statistics

Buyers who enter after the opening print often face a weaker setup, particularly after the initial euphoria fades.

Ritter’s long-run IPO data show that companies with positive first-day returns averaged a 29.6% debut gain from 2001 to 2024, but then underperformed the market by 8.5 percentage points over the next three years.

Related: SpaceX IPO nears 4 times oversubscribed, squeezing crypto and tech

High-valuation IPOs have performed even worse. Among IPOs with trailing sales above $100 million and price-to-sales ratios above 40, buyers at the first close saw an average three-year return of -44.8%.

Long-run IPO returns by price-to-sales ratio. Source: Jay Ritter

SpaceX is going public at nearly 94 times the trailing sales, making it one of the most oversubscribed IPOs ever.

Recent listings showed the same risk. Nasdaq-listed Cerebras (CBRS), a semiconductor company, priced its IPO at $185, opened at $350 and closed its first day near $311, but later fell to around $197, a roughly 50% drop from its first-day peak.

CBRS daily chart. Source: TradingView

Rivian (RIVN) and Uber (UBER) also struggled after strong early attention, with lockup expirations adding pressure as insiders and early investors became free to sell.

SpaceX is overvalued

Several prominent voices have warned that SPCX could fall after the debut.

Morningstar’s Nicholas Owens valued the company at just $780 billion, roughly 55% below the IPO price, calling it significantly overvalued and advising investors to wait for the stock to settle.

NYU professor Aswath Damodaran put the fair value around $1.25–1.3 trillion and described the $135 offer price as “rich.”

In a Wednesday post, analyst The Fundamental Investor said the stock is very likely to drop below the IPO price, potentially leaving early retail buyers underwater for years.

Source: X

The whale’s liquidation level sits near $93.27. The position could incur an estimated loss of about $9.4 million if SPCX falls to that level.

Short squeezes and $11 million liquidations fueled the rapid Audiera (BEAT) price spike.
Weekly burns and $2.9 million revenue added strong narrative support.
$7.50 support is key, break below risks move toward $6 or lower.

Audiera (BEAT) has become one of the most talked-about tokens in the digital asset market after recording an explosive move that pushed its price from below $1 levels earlier in the month to a recent high near $9.2053 on MEXC.

At its current trading range around $9.0708, the token is up more than 61% in a single day and has gained over 1,400% across the monthly timeframe.

The scale and speed of this move have placed BEAT among the strongest-performing crypto assets.

What is Audiera (BEAT)?

Audiera is a blockchain-based entertainment project built around music creation, rhythm gaming, and AI-powered content tools.

The ecosystem is designed to merge interactive gaming experiences with digital music production and on-chain ownership of assets such as NFTs.

The BEAT token acts as the central utility asset within this environment, and it is used for in-game transactions, creator rewards, subscription access, governance voting through staking mechanisms, and participation in platform-driven rewards.

The project also introduces AI agents designed to assist with music generation and user interaction inside the ecosystem.

Why has BEAT surged more than 1400% in a month?

The BEAT price has not been driven by a single factor.

Instead, it has developed through a combination of derivatives activity, market positioning, and ecosystem-related developments that aligned at the same time.

1. A major short squeeze in derivatives markets

One of the strongest drivers behind the price surge has been a large-scale short squeeze.

As BEAT’s price moved sharply higher, over $11 million in short positions were liquidated across derivatives exchanges.

These forced buybacks created additional upward pressure, accelerating the price movement.

During the same period, open interest rose by approximately 35.44% to around $303.5 million.

This indicates that leveraged positions were actively being built even as volatility increased, creating conditions for further liquidation cascades.

The combination of rising open interest and forced liquidations created a feedback loop where buying pressure was not entirely organic but heavily influenced by leveraged market structure.

2. BEAT token burn mechanism

Audiera is currently conducting a weekly token burn of 770,545 BEAT, funded by approximately $2.9 million in platform revenue.

$BEAT Revenue & Burn Update 🔥

Jun 1 – Jun 8, 2026

🔥 770,545 $BEAT burned📈 772,045 $BEAT weekly revenue (2,866,231 USDT)

Total burned: 12,353,034 $BEATOver 12.35M $BEAT permanently removed from circulation.

1 $BEAT = 3.712 USDT (Jun 8, 2026)

Burn tx:… pic.twitter.com/ttaXnW5uui

— Audiera🟣🎵 (@Audiera_web3) June 8, 2026

This burn mechanism aims at reducing the circulating supply over time and is part of the broader narrative surrounding demand and deflationary pressure within the ecosystem.

Audiera (BEAT) price forecast

BEAT’s current structure shows a market that is still heavily influenced by leverage-driven flows and short-term momentum trading.

The key technical level for traders to watch is $7.50, which previously acted as resistance and has now become an important support zone.

As long as BEAT holds above $7.50, price action may continue consolidating within a wide range while volatility remains elevated.

Sustained stability above this level keeps the structure intact for potential continuation attempts toward the $9.40 region, where previous highs were established.

A breakout above the $9.40–$9.50 zone would place price discovery back into play, with extensions historically projected toward the $15 area based on prior momentum cycles.

However, seeing that the RSI is heavily oversold at 97.16, we could see a pullback as the market cools after the massive rally.

If the pullback happens and $7.50 is breached, we could see forced liquidations, which could accelerate a move toward the $6.00 region.

In a deeper correction scenario, particularly if open interest contracts sharply decline while price declines, extended downside projections have been observed toward the $3.70 area, reflecting a full unwind of the earlier leveraged move.

The $54 support level is critical for the Hyperliquid price.
HYPE futures open interest has fallen to $5.86B, triggering a leveraged unwind.
Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit 15 as Bitcoin ETF outflows drove risk-off selling.

The Hyperliquid price has dropped 11% in 24 hours to $55.35, making it one of the hardest-hit assets in an already rough day for crypto.

While the broader crypto market is down, with Bitcoin falling 3.1% toward the $62,000 zone, HYPE’s losses were nearly four times larger; a pattern that tends to show up when a high-beta asset catches a deleveraging wave at the worst possible time.

The 7-day picture is even sharper. HYPE is down 23.7% over the past week and has now given back more than a quarter of its value from its all-time high of $75.48, set just eight days ago on June 2.

Why is the Hyperliquid price declining?

The clearest explanation for the size of the drop lies in the derivatives market.

Hyperliquid futures open interest has dropped to $5.86 billion, a signal that leveraged long positions were being closed rather than new short bets being placed.

At the same time, spot volume climbed 12.5%, meaning actual selling and not just funding rate shifts were hitting the market.

Traders who had built up leveraged positions during HYPE’s run to its all-time high were exiting, and the exits compounded each other.

Interestingly, the price drop was not driven by any negative news specific to the Hyperliquid protocol itself.

Daily buybacks continued as normal, and there were no reports of exploits or technical failures.

It was a speculative unwind, not a fundamental breakdown.

But that unwind happened against a difficult macro backdrop.

The broader market continues to struggle

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to 15, deep in extreme fear territory, down from 47 just a month ago, and total crypto market capitalisation dropped 2.24% in 24 hours to approximately $2.13 trillion.

Traders were pulling back ahead of the Federal Reserve’s June 16–17 meeting, with CME FedWatch data showing a 98.2% probability that rates would stay unchanged.

Geopolitical tension added to the pressure after President Donald Trump indicated the US would respond to Iran allegedly shooting down an American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

Adding to the backdrop, the Hyperliquid Policy Centre (HPC) filed a joint comment letter with venture firm Paradigm on June 9, pushing back on a proposed rule from FinCEN and the Office of Foreign Assets Control that would implement anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.

The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, establishing a federal framework for payment stablecoins, with implementation expected by January 2027.

The April-proposed rule would require stablecoin issuers to maintain AML programs, file Suspicious Activity Reports, and have the technical capability to block, freeze, or reject transactions violating US law, across both primary and secondary markets.

HPC and Paradigm’s objection centres on the secondary market scope.

In permissionless blockchain environments, issuers can see wallet addresses and transaction amounts, but they cannot identify who is actually transacting.

As the filing put it: “Issuers are subject to strict liability for transactions they cannot meaningfully police.”

The groups propose keeping heavier compliance obligations on the primary market, where issuers have direct customer relationships, and want a narrower approach in secondary markets, with the Travel Rule applying to pseudonymous wallet transfers only when operators have a direct relationship with the parties involved.

They also suggested that smart contract-level compliance measures, including address blocklists and transfer restrictions, should be recognized as sufficient, and that money laundering provisions should not extend to protocol developers and on-chain infrastructure participants.

HPC and Paradigm warned that if issuers are held responsible for every secondary-market interaction on permissionless networks, the likely outcome is that regulated stablecoins retreat from DeFi entirely, leaving a gap that unregulated offshore alternatives would fill.

What to watch next for HYPE

The immediate technical focus is the $54 level.

AltcoinSherpa notes that a break below the $54 support level would remove a key area that has been holding HYPE’s price action in place.

If HYPE holds above $54, the token could settle into a consolidation range between $54 and $65.

According to AltcoinSherpa, a break below $54 opens the door to the $44–$54 gap, which would represent a significant further drawdown from current levels.

On the derivatives side, a stabilization or recovery in open interest, currently at $2.48 billion, would be a sign that the selling pressure is exhausting itself.

Notably, if open interest keeps falling while price drops, it suggests more unwinding is still ahead.

One potential volatility catalyst worth monitoring is the SpaceX IPO listing, which could draw trading activity to Hyperliquid’s markets and introduce a new source of volume.

But whether that translates into price support for HYPE specifically is less certain, but it could shift the attention and activity on the platform.

Bitcoin reclaiming $63,000 would also improve the broader altcoin environment.

However, until that happens, altcoins like Hyperliquid (HYPE) remain exposed to further downside if macro sentiment stays cautious heading into the Fed meeting next week.

Zcash’s Orchard pool bug, undetected since 2022, sent ZEC crashing 52% to $303.
The proposed Ironwood upgrade lets anyone verify ZEC’s 21 million coin supply cap.
Analyst Yashu Gola warns of a rising wedge pattern, with $314 as the key support.

Zcash (ZEC) suffered one of its worst weeks in recent memory last week.

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency plunged from around $635 to a low of roughly $303 in a matter of days after Shielded Labs, a nonprofit developer on the Zcash network, disclosed a critical bug in its Orchard shielded pool, the part of the system responsible for hiding transaction details.

The bug, which had gone undetected since 2022, could have allowed an attacker to mint an unlimited amount of fake ZEC without detection.

However, by Monday, June 8, ZEC had clawed back a significant portion of those losses, trading around $442 at press time, a roughly 45% rebound from the June 5 low.

The rebound followed two key developments: an emergency patch to address the vulnerability and the introduction of a new upgrade proposal called Ironwood.

Nevertheless, the token is still down approximately 19.7% over seven days and 26.2% over the past 30 days, leaving plenty of ground to recover.

What the Ironwood upgrade actually does

The emergency patch was a coordinated effort.

Shielded Labs, the Zcash Foundation, and the Zcash Open Development Lab pushed through network upgrades within days of the disclosure, working alongside mining pools ViaBTC and Foundry to get it done quickly.

But fixing the bug was only step one.

On June 6, those same groups formally proposed the Ironwood upgrade as a longer-term solution to restore confidence in Zcash’s coin supply.

Ironwood would create a brand-new privacy pool built on the repaired code and effectively shut down the old Orchard pool, blocking any new coins from being created there.

Once active, anyone running Zcash software would be able to aggregate balances across the old and new pools and independently verify that no more than the maximum supply of 21 million ZEC is in circulation.

The upgrade could also serve as a forensic tool of sorts.

As users migrate their coins out of the old pool, any counterfeit ZEC that might have been minted would either show up when it tries to move or get stranded and effectively destroyed.

Shielded Labs has said it believes the vulnerability was never exploited, though that has not been confirmed definitively.

Developers have not committed to a timeline yet, noting that building, testing, and coordinating the upgrade across the network will take time.

Here’s why the rebound may not hold

While the price recovery looks sharp on paper, technical analysis shows a warning sign.

ZEC appears to be forming a rising wedge pattern on the four-hour chart. The pattern is characterized by higher highs and higher lows within a narrowing range and often signals that buying momentum is fading rather than strengthening.

Notably, after rebounding, ZEC has struggled to establish sustained momentum above the $420-$430 area, suggesting buyers are finding it difficult to push decisively higher.

If the price breaks below the wedge’s lower trendline, the measured downside target lands near $314.

That $314 level is not arbitrary. On the weekly chart, it aligns with the lower trendline of a broader ascending triangle and sits near the 0.236 Fibonacci retracement drawn from the approximately $700 swing high to the $200 swing low.

If ZEC holds above $314 during a pullback, bulls can argue that the broader structure remains intact.

But a decisive break below that level opens the door to a deeper slide toward the $250–$200 support zone.

For bulls to keep the recovery on track, ZEC needs to defend wedge support and clear $450 convincingly.

The 7-day range tells the full story of just how volatile this period has been: $303.80 on the low end and $635.49 on the high end, a spread of more than $330 within a single week.

The fundamental damage from the bug disclosure should not be underestimated either.

Zcash’s core value proposition rests on privacy, cryptographic integrity, and a fixed, trustworthy supply of 21 million coins.

A vulnerability that could have silently inflated that supply struck at the heart of what makes the asset appealing to its investor base.

Even with the patch in place and Ironwood on the table, rebuilding that confidence will take more than a 45% price bounce.

The coming weeks will likely depend on two factors: whether Ironwood progresses from proposal to implementation, and whether ZEC can maintain its key technical support levels during that process.

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,” said 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 Friday, but has since fallen back to $0.40 on Sunday 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 this coming Friday, prompting some to criticize the timing of the sale. 

WLD prices have been extremely volatile over the past week. Source: CoinGecko 

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.”

Related: Hyperliquid bear turns bullish after losing over $46M shorting HYPE

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.  

Magazine: Korea probes Polymarket users, crypto PACs sweep primaries: Hodler’s Digest

A crypto whale who stubbornly held his HYPE short through May’s rally has finally been punished as Hyperliquid’s token kept climbing.

Key takeaways:

Trader has opened fresh long positions in Arthur Hayes’ trinity coins: HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR.HYPE has extended its bull pennant breakout and is now eyeing a rally above $100.

Whale reverses HYPE bet after $46.46 million loss

On Tuesday, the trader known as “loracle.hl” finally closed his HYPE short, locking in a $46.46 million loss, according to data resource HyperBot.

Loracle.hl’s closed perpetual trades. Source: HyperBot

The position also cost him more than $54,000 in funding fees, showing how aggressively he had bet against HYPE’s bullish trend.

Shortly after closing the losing short, Loracle.hl flipped long, opening a 2x leveraged position on 82,200 HYPE, worth about $5.98 million, at around $70.20, according to HypurrScan data.

Loracle.hl’s open perpetual trades. Source: HypurrScan

By Wednesday, the trade was already sitting on more than $213,000 in unrealized profit as HYPE climbed to $72.80.

Whale goes net long on Hayes’ “Holy Trinity”

Loracle.hl’s reversal was not limited to HYPE.

HypurrScan data shows the trader also holding long positions in ZEC and NEAR, effectively putting him net long on BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes’ so-called “holy trinity” trade: HYPE, NEAR, and ZEC.

The wallet held roughly $5.98 million in HYPE, $5.46 million in ZEC and $2.63 million in NEAR exposure as of Wednesday.

Loracle.hl’s open perpetual trades. Source: HypurrScan

The three positions were already collectively up by more than $920,000, led by over $521,000 in unrealized profit on ZEC, roughly $213,450 on HYPE and around $185,900 on NEAR.

The pivot suggests Loracle.hl has capitulated and joined the “holy trinity” momentum.

Hayes has assigned aggressive upside targets to all three tokens. He has projected HYPE could reach $150 by August 2026, NEAR could deliver a 20x return by 2027, and ZEC could rise 5x over the next year, making them his preferred high-beta trades outside Bitcoin.

Related: How high can NEAR price go in June?

HYPE bull pennant puts $105 target in focus

HYPE’s bull pennant breakout keeps its upside target near $105, about 45% above current prices.

HYPE/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The setup formed after the token’s sharp late-May rally, followed by a tight consolidation marked by lower highs and higher lows.

A pullback could retest the 20-day EMA near $60.70. For Loracle.hl, whose 82,200 HYPE long was opened near $70.20, a rally to $105 would lift the unrealized profit to roughly $2.86 million, excluding funding fees.

Arthur Hayes’ investment firm Maelstrom said Worldcoin could surge to as high as $5 per token over the next few months, with WLD acting as a crypto proxy for the AI boom.

“The AI mega IPOs are coming — and it appears the market has overlooked one of the cleanest proxies,” said Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert on Wednesday. 

The AI boom has been in full swing in the US. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC on May 22, targeting a public debut in September 2026, with the firm aiming to raise $60 billion with a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion. 

Meanwhile, competitor Anthropic confidentially filed its draft prospectus on Monday after announcing on May 28 that it was valued at $965 billion following a fresh $65 billion funding round. 

US stock markets such as the S&P 500 have reached record highs this week, primarily due to a surge in AI and memory storage company shares such as SanDisk, Micron, Seagate and Western Digital. 

However, Ruppert argues that this hasn’t been reflected in the price of WLD, though company purchasing and a change in the token unlock schedule could be catalysts for a rally.

WLD is the native token underpinning Worldcoin, a crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman aimed at creating a global digital identity and financial network that can distinguish real humans from AI bots.

Two potential catalysts for WLD price pump

WLD prices have been downtrending since February, with losses accelerating in March following a private sale of tokens. 

Worldcoin raised $65 million via an over-the-counter round in March, selling WLD tokens directly to private investors at a negotiated price, outside of any exchange. Of that amount, $25 million is locked for six months. 

However, to protect themselves against WLD prices dropping before their tokens unlock, buyers hedged by shorting the token on perpetual futures markets in what Ruppert described as a “textbook short overhang.” 

There are two potential catalysts to reverse this mechanical and temporary overhang, he said. 

Eightco (ORBS), a small publicly traded company that has already accumulated 283 million WLD tokens, has around $144 million in cash sitting on its balance sheet. If they use that cash to buy more of the heavily shorted tokens, it could “trigger a reflexive loop,” sending prices higher, he said. 

Secondly, Worldcoin’s unlock schedule, which releases tokens to the market every day, is set to drop by 43% on July 24, which could cut a major source of selling pressure. 

Related: Crypto turns ‘contrarian bet’ as AI stocks draw investor attention: Bitwise

“Capital is aggressively chasing Anthropic and OpenAI exposure,” said Ruppert. Valuations are in the hundreds of billions and trillions, but WLD trades at $2 billion unlocked market cap, “a small cap, when it comes to AI valuations,” he added, labeling it an “asymmetric upside.”

The analyst note comes as WLD is currently the best-performing crypto asset in the top 100 tokens by market capitalization, having surged by around 60% over the past week.

“WLD doesn’t move often — but when it does, it moves aggressively,” he said, with Maelstrom predicting the token will reach $5 by August, a gain of around 900% from its current trading price of $0.50.

WLD has surged over the past week. Source: TradingView

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