Arthur Hayes Sells $22.28M in Crypto as Scammers Attack

Arthur Hayes Clears Out His Portfolio

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX and head of the Maelstrom family office, has closed out his entire directional crypto portfolio. On-chain trackers noticed roughly $22.28 million in digital tokens leaving his wallets on a Saturday morning.

Hayes did not hold back when explaining the decision on social media. He openly shared his thoughts about the current market environment and why he decided to cash out.

"I dumped it all. I think we gotta go down to go up. 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."

Where Did the $22.28 Million Go?

On-chain analytics platforms like Lookonchain and Onchain Lens tracked every transaction as the funds moved out of his wallet. The sell-off was led by Ether (ETH), but also included several altcoins.

Here is the exact breakdown of the assets transferred from his wallet:

• 6,400 ETH: Worth approximately $15.2 million
• 14 million ENA: Worth around $2.76 million
• 323,000 UNI: Valued at about $2.24 million
• 1.89 million ETHFIETHFI-4.03%: Valued at $1.23 million
• Smaller amounts of AERO, PENDLEPENDLE-7.04%, and ZAMA tokens

The funds were routed through different crypto platforms. The ETH was moved in batches of 1,600 ETH, 3,200 ETH, and a final 1,600 ETH into a fresh address before heading straight to a Binance hot wallet. Meanwhile, his ENA tokens went to Binance, his ETHFI went to FalconX, and his UNI and ZAMA tokens were sent to market maker Wintermute. In return, Wintermute sent Hayes 2.426 million USDCUSDC+0.21%.

Scammers Target Hayes with 'Address Poisoning'

Within minutes of his first transfer, scammers tried to exploit the situation. Between 05:58 and 07:32 UTC, Blockscout recorded 26 fake token transfers appearing inside Hayes's public transaction history.

None of these transfers involved actual Ether. Instead, scammers used look-alike Cyrillic and Greek characters padded with invisible spaces to create fake 'ETH' tokens. They mirrored his exact transaction amounts of 1,600 and 3,200 tokens to make them look authentic.

The scammers also spoofed destination wallet addresses. For instance, Hayes sent real ETH to an address starting with 0x58F3 and ending with Ed8B. The scammer created a fake address starting with 0x58f3 and ending with Ed8b.

This trick is known as address poisoning. Scammers flood a wallet history with fake transactions hoping the owner will accidentally copy the fake address when making future transfers.

A Dangerous Trend in Crypto

Address poisoning has caused massive losses across the crypto space recently. Data from Scam Sniffer reveals that one user lost $12.2 million to an address poisoning attack in January, while another trader lost $50 million in USDT to the same trick.

Hayes was not the only big player targeted recently. On October 23, an EthereumETH-1.64% ICO whale who moved 1,000 ETH toward Kraken received zero-value fake transfers within an hour. Luckily, neither whale fell for the trick, and all legitimate funds reached their targets safely.

Why Did Hayes Cash Out Now?

The sudden sell-off comes during a tense period for global markets. At the time of the sale, Ether traded near $2,370 (down 1% daily), while ENA and UNI both dropped roughly 5%. BitcoinBTC-1.12% hovered near $80,600 after making its first daily close below its 50-day moving average since August.

Hayes has been vocal about his caution regarding certain altcoins. In an interview on October 16, he mentioned that tokens with high fully diluted valuations (FDV) struggle to gain momentum on major exchanges like Binance, praising platforms like Hyperliquid for sharing revenue directly with holders.

Keep in mind that crypto markets remain unpredictable. Past performance of digital assets is not an indicator of future results. Track live market movements on Bitkub Market.