Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes sold a substantial portion of his Ethereum (ETH) holdings this week, redirecting millions into select DeFi tokens.<\/p>\n
This move highlights a calculated shift in strategy from a core blue-chip asset to what he views as higher-growth opportunities within decentralized finance.<\/p>\n
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported on December 31 that the BitMEX co-founder sold<\/a> 1,871 ETH over the past two weeks before buying roughly $4.6 million worth of DeFi-related tokens.\u00a0Initial purchases included around $1.8 million in Pendle, $1.3 million in Lido DAO (LDO), $1.2 million in Ethena (ENA), and about $340,000 in Ether.fi (ETHFI).<\/p>\n Minutes later, Lookonchain published a follow-up update showing Hayes doubling down on two of those positions. According to the data, he bought<\/a> an additional 4.86 million ENA, worth about $986,000, and 697,851 ETHFI, valued at nearly $485,000, bringing his total redeployed capital to well over $6 million.<\/p>\n The trader had already telegraphed this shift earlier in the month, posting on X that his portfolio was rotating<\/a> out of ETH and into \u201chigh-quality DeFi names,\u201d arguing they could do better if fiat liquidity continues to loosen.<\/p>\n This is not the first time Hayes has made large-scale portfolio adjustments. In November, he engaged in a similar selling event during a market downturn, disposing<\/a> of ETH, ENA, and ETHFI. That activity followed a prior sale<\/a> in August, after which he humorously pledged never to take profits again.<\/p>\n The community response to the investor\u2019s move has been mixed. While some observers view it as a bullish signal for the selected DeFi sector, others have urged caution. A social media user, Junar, responded<\/a> to the news with a warning: \u201cthe same guy sell his assets in loss so don\u2019t fomo buy here.\u201d<\/p>\n Price data shows why opinions remain divided. According to CoinGecko, ETH is trading around $3,000, roughly flat on the week and up close to 5% over 30 days, even as it remains about 11% lower than a year ago. By contrast, most of the DeFi tokens Hayes bought have shown short-term rebounds but remain deeply underwater on longer horizons.<\/p>\n At the time of writing, Pendle was near $2.00, up almost 14% on the week but down more than 60% year-on-year. Lido\u2019s LDO was sitting around $0.60, with an 11% weekly gain that has done little to offset losses of nearly 68% across twelve months.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, ENA is trading close to $0.20 after slipping over 15% in 30 days and more than 75% since last year, while ETHFI is hovering near $0.70, still more than 90% below its early 2024 peak.<\/p>\n The post Arthur Hayes Dumps ETH for $6M in Pendle, Lido, and Emerging DeFi Tokens<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes sold a substantial portion of his Ethereum (ETH) holdings this week, redirecting millions into select DeFi tokens. This move highlights a calculated shift in strategy from a core blue-chip asset to what he views as higher-growth opportunities within decentralized finance. Hayes Trims ETH Exposure as DeFi Takes Priority Blockchain analytics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":123944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/123944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Price Action Paints a Mixed Picture for DeFi Bets<\/h2>\n