Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder who now runs the family office Maelstrom, posted on X on Saturday that he had “dumped it all.” His words: Maelstrom’s directional book “took profits on $ETH, $ENA, $UNI and other shitcoins. I think we gotta go down to go up.” He said he would sit on the sidelines until an “all clear signal.”
Most coverage stops at the headline number. The more useful part is what the tracked trades show, and what the same move would look like for someone selling from India.
What the trackers actually saw
Hayes gave no sizes or prices. The figures come from on-chain trackers that follow wallets they link to him. Lookonchain posted four minutes before Hayes did and put the sales at $22.28 million across seven tokens. A second tracker, EmberCN, later counted $26.08 million including 8,000 ETH, according to CryptoWatchDesk. Neither Hayes nor Maelstrom has confirmed the wallets, so treat both totals as estimates.
BtcMedia breakdown: the implied prices
Dividing Lookonchain’s dollar values by the token amounts gives the average price each sale was valued at. This is our own arithmetic on their figures, not a disclosed fill price.
| Token | Amount sold | Value (USD) | Implied price | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH | 6,400 | $15.2M | ~$2,375 | 68.2% |
| ENA | 14M | $2.76M | ~$0.197 | 12.4% |
| UNI | 323,000 | $2.24M | ~$6.93 | 10.1% |
| ETHFI | 1.89M | $1.23M | ~$0.651 | 5.5% |
| AERO | 546,609 | $398K | ~$0.728 | 1.8% |
| PENDLE | 120,000 | $244K | ~$2.03 | 1.1% |
| ZAMA | 3M | $214K | ~$0.071 | 1.0% |
| Total | $22.28M | 100% |
Two things stand out. First, this was an ether trade with some DeFi tokens attached: ETH alone was more than two-thirds of the book, and the top three positions were over 90%. Second, the ETH price implied by the sale, about $2,375, sits almost exactly where ether traded on Saturday (about $2,367 when we checked). In other words, there was no visible fire-sale discount. Selling $15 million of ETH barely moved a market that size.
Why it matters, and why it may not
Hayes has a public record of loud calls in both directions. Yahoo Finance noted that he has previously said ether could reach $100,000 to $200,000 at the peak of the next cycle, and in the same post he hinted he expects money printing (“Brrrrr”) after the drop he is waiting for. Read together, this is a timing bet, not a verdict that crypto is finished.
Context matters too. The exit came as bitcoin was testing $80,000 after a week of spot ETF outflows, with the US Federal Reserve meeting on October 28. A $22 million sale is small next to daily ETH spot volumes, so the signal is in who sold, not in the size.
BtcMedia verdict: the trade tells you one well-known investor wants cash ahead of a busy macro week. It does not tell you where ether goes next, and the tracker totals still disagree by about $3.8 million.
What it means for Indian investors
At USD/INR 95.04 on October 24, the tracked $22.28 million sale is about ₹211.7 crore, and the ETH leg alone is roughly ₹144.5 crore.
If an Indian resident made the same exit through an FIU-IND-registered exchange, 1% TDS would be deducted on the sale value: about ₹2.1 crore, whether or not there was a profit. Any gain is then taxed at 30% plus 4% cess, an effective 31.2%. A loss on, say, ZAMA could not be used to cut the tax on an ETH gain, because India does not allow set-off between crypto assets.
A smaller example: selling 1 ETH at ₹2,24,703 that cost ₹1,80,000 leaves a ₹44,703 gain, about ₹13,947 of tax and ₹2,247 of TDS (which counts as credit against the tax). You can run your own numbers in our crypto tax calculator tools and the loss set-off calculator.
FAQ
Did Arthur Hayes sell bitcoin? None of the tracked sales lists bitcoin. Hayes named ETH, ENA and UNI, and trackers added ETHFI, AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA.
Is the $22.28 million figure confirmed? No. It is Lookonchain’s estimate from wallets it links to Hayes. EmberCN estimated $26.08 million, and Maelstrom has not confirmed either.
Should I sell because Hayes did? One investor’s timing call is not a plan for your money. Check your own goals, tax position and time horizon first.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.