Arthur Hayes doubles down on HYPE as he eyes $150 target by August

Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder and current chief investment officer at crypto family office Maelstrom Fund, purchased 26,022 HYPE tokens worth approximately $1.1 million on Saturday, according to data tracked by Lookonchain.

His total position now sits at 247,334 tokens valued at over $10 million with unrealized gains above $2.2 million.

HYPE was trading at approximately $41, down about 2% in the last 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows.

The native asset of Hyperliquid’s layer 1 blockchain has outperformed leading crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of year-to-date returns.

So far this year, HYPE has jumped roughly 61%, while Bitcoin and Ether have dropped 18% and 25%, respectively. Still, the token hasn’t fully recovered, sitting around 31% below its September all-time high.

Hayes has steadily accumulated HYPE over the past few months. On-chain data shows that the prominent investor sold a number of his altcoins to buy $1.9 million worth of HYPE in February.

He has also publcily expressed his support for Hyperliquid and its ecosystem. In a March blog post, he predicted that HYPE could hit $150 by August, a fivefold increase from where it traded in early March at around $30.

The projection, based on Maelstrom’s financial model, pointed to the project’s continued dominance in the on-chain perpetuals futures market and its deeply undervalued revenue machine.

Moreover, the majority of trading fees get funneled directly into HYPE token buybacks, creating constant upward pressure on prices, according to Hayes.

“No other project in all of crypto hands as much money back to token holders as Hyperliquid,” Hayes previously stated.

According to DefiLlama data, Hyperliquid tops the 24-hour perps trading volume rankings with $2.6 billion, ahead of Aster’s $1 billion. It also maintains a clear lead over edgeX, Aster, and Lighter in 30-day volume.