Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer and co-founder of Maelstrom, said Oct. 24 that the firm had closed its directional crypto trading book, citing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. The former BitMEX co-founder and CEO wrote on X, “It looks a bit dicey out there in macro and geopolitical land.”
Blockchain tracker Lookonchain valued seven token positions it attributed to Hayes at about $22.28 million. Its largest listed position was 6,400 Ether (ETH), valued at $15.2 million. The report also listed 14 million Ethena (ENA) at $2.76 million and 323,000 Uniswap (UNI) at $2.24 million.
The other positions were 1.89 million Ether.fi (ETHFI), valued at $1.23 million; 546,609 Aerodrome (AERO), at $398,000; 120,000 Pendle (PENDLE), at $244,000; and 3 million Zama (ZAMA), at $214,000. Lookonchain’s dollar figures were rounded, and its report gave no valuation time or trade-by-trade execution prices or proceeds.
Hayes said he would wait for an “all clear signal” before resuming directional trades, but did not define the signal or give a timeline. Maelstrom describes itself as a family office with Venture, Liquid, Private Equity and Public Markets strategies; Hayes’ statement concerned the directional book.
