WLD tumbles after Arthur Hayes sells Maelstrom’s stake — a reversal just 24 hours after saying he would hold
Worldcoin (WLD) plunged Friday after Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder and chief investment officer of family office Maelstrom, announced he had sold the firm’s entire position in the token — a sharp reversal from comments he made a day earlier that Maelstrom would keep holding WLD.
“Dumped $WLD. I’m out. See y’all at the clerb,” Hayes wrote on Twitter alongside a chart showing SpaceX stock sliding. WLD fell sharply on the news, moving as much as 20% intraday and trading roughly 10% lower over the prior 24 hours, with a significant portion of that decline coming after Hayes’ tweet.
Hayes’ decision follows another recent Maelstrom trade: the fund sold all of its Zcash (ZEC) holdings after identifying what he called a flaw in the Orchard privacy pool that undermined the coin’s rationale as a privacy play. At the time he said Maelstrom might rebuy ZEC at higher levels if he turned out to be wrong. For Worldcoin, Hayes had publicly signaled he would keep the position while waiting for a catalyst — referencing “Lord Elon” (Elon Musk) as someone who could lift the broader AI/tech trade.
That connection hinges on SpaceX’s recent reframing as an AI and connectivity story. SpaceX’s pre-listing quotes (trading under the ticker SPCX on private markets) have been treated by some traders as a proxy for AI exposure; Worldcoin, positioned as an AI-themed token tied to identity tech, had been used by some funds as a liquid way to express that trade. SpaceX’s private-market pre-listings, however, have slumped: data from Hyperliquid shows pre-listing quotes for SpaceX down more than 50% in recent days — a headwind for AI-proxy plays.
It’s also worth noting that Worldcoin is tied to Sam Altman’s eye-scanning identity project, not to Musk; Altman and Musk head rival AI efforts. Despite market turbulence, Worldcoin had posted big gains recently — up roughly 70% over the past month — though that rally had cooled to about a 45% gain over the past week after Saturday’s pullback.
Hayes remains a high-profile, market-moving voice in crypto, and his rapid change of stance on WLD appears to have had an immediate effect on price. As the SpaceX public listing (Nasdaq) approaches and private pre-listing quotes continue to fluctuate, traders will be watching whether other funds follow Maelstrom’s lead or reposition around AI-themed tokens like Worldcoin.
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