Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, sold his entire Worldcoin (WLD) position on June 6 after the SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures chart showed unexpected weakness, completing a five-day liquidation of four major altcoin positions he had publicly championed. The exit marks a dramatic reversal from just two days earlier, when Hayes had published one of his most aggressive bullish calls on WLD, arguing the token would surge alongside the coming wave of artificial intelligence company initial public offerings (IPOs).

What Triggered the Sudden Exit?

Hayes' thesis rested on a specific analogy: when SpaceX confidentially filed its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April, high-beta space equities moved sharply. Rocket Lab (RKLB) rallied 165% in the weeks that followed. With both Anthropic and OpenAI filing confidentially for their own public listings, Hayes and his family office Maelstrom argued that WLD, sitting at the intersection of Sam Altman's identity network and the AI sector narrative, was positioned to catch a similar draft.

The token had surged roughly 60% in the week ending June 4, driven by his public endorsement and the argument that WLD was the cleanest liquid proxy for the coming AI IPO wave. Trading volume hit $1.7 billion in the session after Maelstrom's research note circulated on June 4, and the token touched $0.55, an 80% gain from its April floor near $0.24.

But when the SpaceX pre-IPO derivatives chart "turned strange," as Hayes described it on June 6, the entire thesis unraveled. Whatever the data showed in those derivatives, the SPCX pre-IPO perpetual futures were the thread the WLD trade ran on. Pulling it ended the position. WLD dropped 13.8% on June 6 and now trades around $0.42, roughly 96% below its all-time high of $11.74.

How Did Hayes Unwind Four Positions in Five Days?

• June 4, Hyperliquid (HYPE): Hayes cleared his entire HYPE position, citing higher energy prices tied to the Iran conflict, three large AI IPOs expected before early Q3, a prediction that President Donald Trump would turn against artificial intelligence ahead of midterm elections, and a broader call that financial markets would top before September. On-chain data showed 247,334 HYPE tokens worth about $18.02 million moving to major exchanges.
• June 4, Near Protocol (NEAR): Hayes exited his NEAR position the same day as HYPE, citing the same macro factors including energy costs and the anticipated AI IPO wave.
• June 5, Zcash (ZEC): A security engineer at Shielded Labs discovered a flaw in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool, an insufficient constraint in elliptic-curve multiplication inside the halo2_gadgets cryptographic library, identified using AI-assisted formal methods. The bug had existed since the NU5 protocol upgrade activated in May 2022, surviving multiple external audits across nearly four years. An emergency hard fork on June 3 patched it, but the Orchard pool's privacy architecture made it cryptographically impossible to verify no counterfeit ZEC had been minted during that window.
• June 6, Worldcoin (WLD): Hayes posted the SpaceX pre-IPO derivatives chart, noted it was going strangely, and confirmed the sale of his final position.

What Was the Original Worldcoin Bull Case?

Hayes had made clear on June 4 that WLD was the exception to his broader market concerns. When he cleared the other positions that same day, he simultaneously published one of the more aggressive bullish calls he had made on any token that year. He amplified a Maelstrom research note authored by Lukas Ruppert, an analyst at his family office, titled "WLD Hated Rally," which argued the token would surge due to AI sector tailwinds.

The research note ran on three concrete mechanics, not just narrative proximity to AI. First, $65 million was raised in a March over-the-counter (OTC) round, including $25 million locked for six months, with OTC participants hedging exposure immediately and pushing perpetual futures funding deeply negative. Second, a $156 million WLD position was disclosed by Eightco Holdings (ORBS), which held roughly 283 million WLD at the time, equal to about 8.3% of circulating supply, with the company signaling it was "just getting started". Third, a 43% reduction in daily WLD token unlocks was scheduled for July 24, cutting daily emissions from roughly 5.1 million to 2.9 million tokens, a supply-side shift the note argued would ease selling pressure exactly when institutional demand from Eightco could press in harder.

The note described the interplay as potentially reflexive: a falling unlock rate hitting a token that was already heavily shorted, with one institutional holder growing its position. None of those supply mechanics changed between June 4 and June 6. What changed was the SpaceX chart.

Why Does SpaceX's IPO Valuation Matter?

SpaceX set a fixed IPO price of $135 per share, targeting a June 12 Nasdaq debut under the ticker SPCX, aiming to raise approximately $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation, which would make it the largest IPO in stock market history, surpassing Saudi Aramco's 2019 record. The roadshow launched June 4, the same day the WLD bull calls were circulating.

According to the company's S-1 prospectus filed with the SEC, SpaceX posted a $4.28 billion operating loss in Q1 2026 and $4.94 billion in full-year 2025 net losses. At the $1.75 trillion target valuation, the company was being priced at roughly 109 times its 2025 trailing revenue, a multiple normally attached to early-stage software, applied to a capital-intensive launch business. Morningstar calculated fundamental fair value at $780 billion, less than half the IPO ask.

Pre-IPO perpetual futures for SPCX had been trading on crypto derivatives platforms including Binance and Coinbase since May, and their price action was the chart posted on June 6. Whatever the data showed in those derivatives, demand softening or a positioning reversal, the SPCX derivatives were the thread the WLD thesis ran on. Pulling it ended the position.

What Is Worldcoin and Why Does It Matter?

Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, uses iris-scanning spherical orbs to build what it describes as a global proof-of-personhood network, the premise being that verifying real human identity becomes essential as AI systems multiply. The concept attracted institutional capital worth hundreds of millions, but it also attracted regulatory action in at least seven major jurisdictions, including a suspension of operations in Kenya in August 2023 citing national security and privacy risks.

The token's collapse from $11.74 to $0.42 reflects not just Hayes' exit, but broader skepticism about whether an iris-scanning identity network can achieve the scale and regulatory acceptance needed to justify its valuation. Hayes' five-day liquidation, triggered by macro concerns and a broken SpaceX thesis, underscores how tightly linked WLD's bull case had become to the broader AI IPO narrative and how quickly that narrative can unwind when the underlying technical signals shift.