Arthur Hayes kept selling. Lookonchain flagged his wallet on Oct. 24, 2026. Seven tokens worth $22.28 million moved out of it. The total had grown to $28.8 million by Saturday morning. Hayes had booked $6.65 million in profit along the way, CoinCentral reported1. Hours after he sold, another trader kept buying the same dip. He posts as Doctor Profit, and he said so in a post of his own2. The two trades answer one question two ways: was the week's price action a warning, or a window?
He Called the Market Dicey
Hayes gave his own reason the morning the tokens first moved. “I dumped it all. The Maelstrom directional book, took profits on $ETH, $ENA, $UNI and other shitcoins,” he wrote on X3. “It looks a bit dicey out there in macro and geopolitical land. Going to sit on the sidelines and wait for the all clear signal … Brrrrr,” he said in the same post. A directional book holds bets on where a price moves next. It differs from trades built to earn a fee regardless of direction. Clearing it meant Maelstrom walked away from every one of those bets at once.
He co-founded BitMEX in 2014 with Ben Delo and Samuel Reed, and ran it until October 2020. BitMEX grew into one of crypto's largest derivatives exchanges under his leadership. Regulators charged the three with Bank Secrecy Act violations that month, Wikipedia's record of the case states9. Hayes pleaded guilty in 2022. President Trump pardoned him and his co-founders in March 2025. He runs Maelstrom now, the family office behind this trade. Maelstrom trades his own book, apart from outside investors' money.
Ether carried the biggest piece of the sale: 6,400 coins, worth $15.2 million. Ethena's ENA added $2.76 million. Uniswap's UNI added $2.24 million. EtherFi, Aerodrome and Zama tokens brought the altcoin total to $22.28 million, the figure Lookonchain first counted on Friday1. Each of those tokens settles on Ethereum, the chain Hayes cut the deepest.
Hayes's Token Sale Grows From $22.28 Million to $28.8 Million by Oct. 25, 2026
Dollar value of tokens Arthur Hayes moved to exchanges, Oct. 24 versus Oct. 25, 2026, in millions
- Oct. 24 total
- Oct. 25 total
Source: CoinCentral [1].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Oct. 24 total | Oct. 25 total |
|---|---|---|
| Tokens moved to exchanges | $22.28M | $28.8M |
Hayes picked his week with reason. Ether ETFs lost $1.1 billion in October. That was their second-largest monthly outflow since launch. Ether itself fell 15 percent from its recent $2,800 high1. An ETF outflow counts money investors pulled from funds holding Ether on their behalf. It signals investors pulling back. A sale that size, timed against that backdrop, reads as a calculated retreat.
Geopolitics added its own noise to that retreat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked for a plan to use crypto and blockchain technology against banking sanctions, the Jerusalem Post reported7. Israel's central bank had already rejected the idea.
One hundred nine economists signed a letter calling the plan “a bizarre solution commonly used by criminal organizations that will be of no help whatsoever”7. Globes separately reported the same group warned sanctions would cause "huge, irreparable damage" to Israel's economy8. That letter stayed a political argument. It sat in the same week as the backdrop Hayes summed up in one word.
A Trader Betting the Other Way
Doctor Profit saw the same dip differently. He had been adding Bitcoin longs near $80,000 for weeks already, he said in his own post that same day2. “Since weeks I'm saying 80-81k is the area I'm adding more longs,” he wrote. A small group had mocked him, he said, when Bitcoin slid from $84,000 back under $80,000. He answered with a plan of his own. “I'm building this position for the long term. Not to be happy with a small 4K pump,” he said, naming his own target. "My next target remains clearly 94k."
He was hardly alone in that view. CryptoQuant found whale wallets had added about 243,000 Bitcoin over the past year. That flipped their net selling position from 282,000 Bitcoin sold to just 39,000, analyst CW8900 reported4. Large holders, in other words, spent the year buying more than they sold, even as Hayes closed his own book. Bitcoin itself briefly touched $79,200 before recovering to about $80,620 as of 08:38 UTC on Oct. 25, 2026. CoinGlass counted $546.88 million in liquidations across 116,300 traders in the 24 hours around that swing, crypto.news reported.
Bitcoin Recovers to About $80,620 After Dipping Near $79,200, Oct. 25, 2026
Bitcoin's price at its weekend low versus its level after recovering, in US dollars, per crypto.news
- Recovered: $80,620
- Weekend low: $79,200
Source: crypto.news [4].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Weekend low | $79,200 |
| Recovered | $80,620 |
Read together, the two traders made opposite bets on the same chart. Hayes took his profit off the table. He chose to watch from here. Doctor Profit kept his spot bought near $60,000 open, and he added more on top of it. Both moves rested on the same price, read two different ways. Hayes's trade locked in a gain that stays his, whatever price comes next. Doctor Profit's trade pays only if Bitcoin keeps climbing toward his $94,000 target. That bet stays open to the same macro and geopolitical risk Hayes named. The next few weeks of ETF flows, and the next leg in Bitcoin's price, decide which trader called it right.
A Whale a Few Dollars From Forced Selling
The dip tested bigger positions too. One large trader, or possibly an institution, held 115,473 Ether worth about $272.1 million. The same account held 1,539.5 Bitcoin worth about $124.4 million, a combined position of $396.5 million, ChainCatcher reported5. That position used leverage, which lets a trader control more than the cash behind it. Leverage cuts both ways: it multiplies a gain, and it multiplies the speed of a loss. A liquidation price marks the point where an exchange closes a leveraged trade by force. The exchange sells the collateral behind it to cover the loan. When Ether touched $2,282, the position sat $30 away from that point.
A fresh margin top-up followed within hours: $9.21 million. It pulled the Ether liquidation price down from $2,256 to $2,1815. Adding margin works as a buffer: it moves the forced-sale price further away. That buys the trader a wider gap before the exchange would step in. The Bitcoin side of the same position carries its own liquidation price, $70,396, far below where Bitcoin traded that morning.
ChainCatcher credited the find to the trader who posts as @EmberCN. Its English report rendered the handle's pinyin as "Yu Jin"56. The CryptoLately.com Desk checked the public record. It found only the handle its owner uses: EmberCN.
EmberCN@EmberCN昨晚 11 点的时候，ETH 最低跌到 $2,282，这个超大 ETH 多仓巨鲸/机构就差 $30 刀被清算。
所以他在凌晨赶紧补充了 921 万 USDC 保证金，把 ETH 多仓清算价从 $2,256 降到现在的 $2,181，暂时脱离 ICU。
现在他持有价值高达 $3.965 亿的 BTC 及 ETH 多单：
◎115,473 枚 ETH ($2.721… https://t.co/vycv5HNwhz pic.twitter.com/bxDUklj7Ot
A position that size rarely clears in one trade. Forced selling that close to a liquidation price can cascade fast. It can pull a thin order book lower as it unwinds, dragging Bitcoin and Ether down together. The trader's own margin top-up bought the position room to breathe. Ether's next move decides whether that margin holds. Hayes's own warning about a dicey market reads differently beside a trade that nearly forced an exit the same day he sold.
By the numbers
- Hayes banked $6.65 million in profit over that same day1.
- $28.8 million in tokens left Hayes's wallet for exchanges over 24 hours, up from $22.28 million a day earlier, CoinCentral reported1.
- Ether made up the largest piece of the sale: 6,400 coins, worth $15.2 million1.
- October's Ether ETF outflows hit $1.1 billion, the second-largest month since launch1.
- Bitcoin ETFs lost $773.4 million on Oct. 22 and 23 alone, crypto.news reported4.
- CoinGlass counted $546.88 million in liquidations across 116,300 traders in 24 hours, crypto.news reported4.
- One large trader's combined Bitcoin and Ether position reached $396.5 million before nearly being forced shut5.
- A $9.21 million margin top-up kept that position open after Ether touched $2,2825.
- Hayes's post had drawn 3,918 likes and 882 replies as of 11:15 UTC on Oct. 25, 2026, when the CryptoLately.com Desk checked it2.
What to watch
Watch Ether ETF flows next. A return to inflows would support Hayes's read of danger passing. Watch Doctor Profit's position too. A hold above $80,000 would reward the conviction he kept buying on. Bitcoin breaking below $70,396 would test the larger trader's cushion as well. Each marker carries a plain number a reader can check against the next week's close.
Sources
- Trader Edge, "Arthur Hayes Is Still Selling: $28.8M in Tokens Sent to Exchanges Since Yesterday," CoinCentral, Oct. 25, 2026, https://coincentral.com/arthur-hayes-is-still-selling-28-8m-in-tokens-sent-to-exchanges-since-yesterday
- Doctor Profit (@DrProfitCrypto), Post on X, Oct. 24, 2026, https://x.com/DrProfitCrypto/status/2114143892048064717
- Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes), Post on X, Oct. 24, 2026, https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/2113877751803642092
- Olivia Stephanie, "Why is Bitcoin price struggling to recover despite rising whale buying?" crypto.news, Oct. 25, 2026, https://crypto.news/bitcoin-price-prediction-etf-outflows-80000/
- ChainCatcher, "Data: A certain whale/institution's long position of over 270 million USD in ETH is just one step away from liquidation, with the latest liquidation price at 2181 USD," ChainCatcher, Oct. 25, 2026, https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2298723
- EmberCN (@EmberCN), Post on X, Oct. 25, 2026, https://x.com/EmberCN/status/2114157583338787130
- Liat Ron, "'Of no help whatsoever': Economists, entrepreneurs call out Netanyahu for 'bizarre' crypto plan," The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 25, 2026, https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-912781
- Globes correspondent, "Economists: Sanctions will cause Israel huge, irreparable damage," Globes, Oct. 25, 2026, https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-Economists-Sanctions-will-cause-Israel-huge-irreparable-damage-1001560640
- Wikipedia, "Arthur Hayes (banker)," Wikipedia, retrieved Oct. 25, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hayes_(banker)