$HYPE to Hit $150 By August Says Admitted “Hype Man” Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes has revealed his family office crypto investment fund, Maelstrom, now holds a significant amount of Hyperliquid ($HYPE) token, as he blatantly plugged the token in a lengthy newsletter.

Hayes said the purpose of Maelstrom was to be “hype men that monetize attention” — and specifically that he wants everyone’s attention on HYPE — which has recently become the firm’s “largest liquid shitcoin position”.

Bold predictions are clearly key to Hayes’ hype man duties, and he didn’t disappoint. He declared an August 2026 price target of US$150 (AU$212) for HYPE, which would be about a 5x gain.

The token was valued at around US$30 (AU$42) at the time, but has spiked by over 12% in the past 24 hours to reach almost US$35 (AU$49), according to CoinMarketCap data. The rally is attributed to increased trading activity on Hyperliquid as traders placed open positions on oil futures over the weekend, in response to US strikes on Iran.

In August 2025, Hayes predicted HYPE’s value could increase by up to 126 times within three years. Hayes then exited his position in HYPE in September 2025, taking over US$800k in profits, before acquiring more HYPE in early 2026. 

Hayes said his current view on HYPE’s price spiking is based on the idea that the best-performing shitcoins in bear markets are exchanges that continue earning fees regardless, and that Hyperliquid is best-placed as the dominant perpetuals decentralised exchange (DEX).

If the market believes that $HYPE can continue syphoning volumes away from CEXs and add new features to accelerate revenue growth, then $HYPE can pump in absolute terms.

Arthur Hayes, CIO Maelstrom

Related: Hyperliquid Heats Up: Onchain Perps Liquidity Smashes Records

Hayes’ Thesis on Why Hyperliquid Will Prevail

The outspoken crypto pundit, former BitMEX CEO, and pardoned felon said his thesis is contingent on two important factors:

• Hyperliquid would need to grow its 30-day revenues to US$1.4 billion by August (from $843 million in March) in the face of increased DEX competition; and
• The monthly $HYPE team token distribution would track lower (he assumes around 815,750).

Hayes said Hyperliquid could double its 30-day annualised revenue run rate within months if it can attract 3.97% of the global trading volume of crypto perps from centralised exchanges.

He also argues that the Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3 (HIP-3) mechanism, which enables a permission-less process for listing new perp markets when a user stakes 500,000 HYPE, can do the “heavy lifting” to help grow the exchange’s customer base. 

HIP-3 functionality has seen providers offer trading in tokenised real-world assets such as Nasdaq Futures, Silver, Gold, and Forex. Hayes’ model assumes 160% HIP-3 revenue growth in six months.

“In only four months, HIP-3 volumes account for close to 10% of total Hyperliquid revenues. Permissionless listings were always the holy grail of DEXs, and the rapid growth in trading volumes proves this is how Hyperliquid will differentiate itself from the pack,” Hayes said.

The anticipated introduction of permission-less listing of prediction markets (aka HIP-4 upgrade announced in February) on Hyperliquid is the “cherry on-top” according to Hayes. 

Related: Willy Woo Flags Bitcoin Bull Trap as Bear Market Enters Middle Phase

He also warns: “that if Hyperliquid cannot grow revenues from here, the token won’t rise. If that’s your view, don’t buy $HYPE under any scenario.”

Hayes said Maelstrom started investing in $HYPE when the token was valued in the mid $20-range. 

“$HYPE quickly became our largest liquid shitcoin position, and we intend to continue selling all other inferior projects to own more $HYPE while within this trading range.”