Arthur Hayes swiftly reversed his stance on Worldcoin within less than a day. On Friday, the co-founder of BitMEX and Chief Investment Officer of the family office Maelstrom stated that the institution had sold all of its WLD holdings. Following the announcement, WLD’s decline accelerated, dropping more than 20% amid a broader weakness in the cryptocurrency market.
The previous day, it was stated to continue holding.
Hayes posted on social media that he had exited WLD, along with a chart showing SpaceX's declining stock price. According to CoinDesk, WLD had already experienced a decline in the previous 24 hours, and the downward trend accelerated further after Hayes’s post.
Just one day ago, Hayes stated that Maelstrom would continue holding Worldcoin. At the time, he noted that institutions had exited Zcash due to flaws in its Orchard privacy pool, which undermined the rationale for holding it; however, he chose to maintain the position in WLD.
SpaceX's pre-IPO valuation has weakened
At the time, Hayes also linked WLD’s subsequent performance to Musk, saying he would wait for “Lord Elon” to drive the price upward. This statement primarily revolved around AI-themed trading.
The report notes that SpaceX has recently been increasingly framed in capital markets as an AI and connectivity services company, rather than just a rocket company. Therefore, if its IPO performs strongly, it could boost broader sentiment around AI and technology assets.
However, SpaceX is not expected to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX until June 12. The price cited by Hayes is not the post-listing market price, but rather a pre-listing quote from the private market. According to Hyperliquid data, the related pre-listing price has dropped more than 50% in recent days.
WLD's one-week price increase has narrowed.
Despite the recent significant pullback, WLD rose approximately 70% over the past month. However, following a sharp price decline from Friday to Saturday, its one-week gain has narrowed to about 45%.
Meanwhile, the broader crypto market is also under pressure. Bitcoin briefly dropped to around $59,200 before recovering slightly. This followed stronger-than-expected U.S. employment data, which led markets to reassess expectations for higher interest rates to persist longer, causing simultaneous declines in U.S. stocks, bonds, and crypto assets.
Additional information: Worldcoin is championed by Sam Altman, not by Elon Musk. The two are associated with different AI companies, and the market regards WLD as one of the AI-themed tokens.