Arthur Hayes has turned Monad (MON) into the week’s most chaotic battleground. Simply 48 hours after hyping the token with a brazen “MON to $10,” the BitMEX co-founder reversed course solely.
In the meantime, different whales proceed to build up the token, which hit the mainnet solely just lately however continues to trip a wave of spoofed token transfers.
Arthur Hayes Nukes MON Publicly, However Whales Are Secretly Accumulating
The previous BitMEX CEO slammed the token, urging merchants to ship it to zero, simply two days after the MON value recorded a pointy post-launch rally.
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Hayes’ reversal started on November 25, when he joked that the bull market wanted “one other low float, excessive FDV ineffective Layer-1 (L1) token,” earlier than admitting he aped in anyway.
Nevertheless, by November 27, he declared himself “out,” dismissing MON altogether and telling the market to ignore it.
But blockchain information suggests MON’s largest gamers didn’t share his bearishness.
On-chain monitoring by Lookonchain reveals that whale tackle 0x9294 withdrew 73.36 million MON (round $3 million) from Gate.io inside 24 hours, marking one of many largest single-address accumulations recorded this week.
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BeInCrypto additionally reported that mega whales (holding the highest-tier addresses) boosted their MON holdings by 10.67%, bringing their stash to 176.44 million MON after including 17.08 million tokens value roughly $717,000.
In the meantime, regular whales added 4.80 million MON over the identical interval, increasing their holdings by 9.51% to succeed in 55.42 million MON.
In complete, whales now management over 300 million MON, a pointy distinction to Hayes’ public dismissal of the undertaking.
Hayes Rotates Into ENA, PENDLE, and ETHFI
Whereas Hayes publicly torched MON, he quietly shifted capital into different tokens. Lookonchain experiences that throughout the previous two days, Hayes collected:
- 4.89 million ENA (Ethena), valued at $1.37 million,
- 436,000 PENDLE value $1.13 million, and
- 696,000 ETHFI ($543K).
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On November 26 alone, he spent one other $536,000 on 218,000 PENDLE. The ENA trades are much more telling. Simply 9 hours earlier than Lookonchain’s newest report, Hayes purchased again 873,671 ENA for $245,000, despite the fact that he bought 5.02 million ENA two weeks earlier at a lower cost.
“[Hayes is once again] promoting low, shopping for excessive,” Lookonchain remarked, signaling both emotional buying and selling or a deliberate technique to scale into positions he values greater than his preliminary entry.
Collectively, the strikes level towards a broader rotation technique. Hayes seems to be exiting high-FDV, meme-driven L1 narratives like MON whereas doubling down on “actual yield” and liquid staking performs represented by PENDLE, ENA, and ETHFI.
This is able to align with broader market habits, the place stabilized costs imply spot flows, particularly from whales, now matter greater than short-term hype cycles.
Nonetheless, the contradiction between Hayes’ aggressive public FUD on MON and simultaneous heavy whale accumulation raises uncomfortable questions for the market.
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Is his commentary merely emotional whiplash, or is he deliberately enjoying into volatility that advantages skilled merchants? The dynamic revives debates about whether or not influential voices in crypto can distort sentiment whereas others accumulate within the shadows.
Nonetheless, traders should conduct their very own analysis, as Hayes’ dramatic exit from MON has not deterred the deep pockets. If something, whales seem extra than ever, quietly absorbing provide as retail merchants digest the noise.
As of this writing, the MON value is down by over 13%, presently buying and selling at $0.0412. This dump probably stems from issues after faux token switch assaults, the place unhealthy actors exploited the ERC-20 commonplace to mislead customers with faux pockets exercise.
In a single occasion, a fraudulent contract generated faux swap calls and simulated buying and selling patterns across the MON ecosystem. The transfers aimed to use the early hours frenzy after Monad’s mainnet, when customers had been opening wallets, claiming tokens, and monitoring liquidity.