Maelstrom co-founder Arthur Hayes said he sold his Worldcoin (WLD) holdings just days after his venture capital firm described it as one of the cleanest proxies for the AI investment play. 

“This chart is going in the wrong direction,” said Hayes on X on Saturday, showing a chart for the SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures contract, which had fallen sharply.

“Dumped WLD. I’m out. See y’all at the clerb,” he added.

It was only on Wednesday that Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert described Worldcoin as an “overlooked” bet on “AI mega IPOs,” predicting WLD would hit $5 by August.

The investor note led to a short rally for WLD, which topped $0.60 on June 5, but has since fallen back to $0.40 on June 7 as Hayes told his 800,000 X followers that he had exited his position. 

Hayes previously said on X that he would hold WLD through the SpaceX IPO on Nasdaq, which is expected on June 12, prompting some to criticize the timing of the sale. 

WLD prices have been extremely volatile over the past week. Source: CoinGecko 

The ‘Holy Trinity is dead’ — or is it? 

WLD adds to the list of crypto assets Hayes has pivoted on despite earlier bullish comments. 

In March, Hayes predicted that Hyperliquid (HYPE) would reach $150 by August and on June 1 said it would “outperform any other current top ten crypto in USD terms from now until year-end,” but sold his entire position in the asset three days later, citing higher energy prices due to the Iran war, “inventory restocking,”  and imminent “mega AI IPOs.”

Related: Hyperliquid bear turns bullish after losing over $46M shorting HYPE

On May 6, Hayes said Zcash would reach 10% of Bitcoin’s price. On June 5, he offloaded his ZEC stash following the discovery of a critical vulnerability in its privacy protocol, claiming that the “Holy Trinity” of HYPE, ZEC, and NEAR was “dead.”

However, Hayes appears to have reversed his position partially. A wallet linked to Hayes bought back around 33,978 HYPE worth around $2 million on Monday, after it had fallen 26% in the wake of his June 4 sale, according to Arkham Intelligence. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Maelstrom for comments but did not receive an immediate response.  

Magazine: Korea probes Polymarket users, crypto PACs sweep primaries: Hodler’s Digest

Key Takeaways

• On June 7, Bybit rolled out tokenized SpaceX IPO participation for VIP and Pro members at $135 per token with a 5% underwriting charge
• Bybit and Kraken both utilize the xStocks infrastructure, managed by Payward Services (Kraken’s parent entity), to deliver this offering
• SpaceX seeks a $1.75 trillion market cap through a $75 billion capital raise — potentially setting a record as the largest IPO ever
• These tokens function as tracker certificates rather than actual equity — holders receive neither voting privileges nor dividend payments
• According to Bybit’s documentation, the assets backing these tokens “may not always consist of the underlying shares”

Major cryptocurrency platforms Bybit and Kraken have introduced tokenized participation in the SpaceX initial public offering, though the product includes significant restrictions and conditions investors should understand.

Bybit’s IPO Express Program Explained

Bybit activated subscription access on June 7 through its IPO Express platform. Eligibility requires VIP or Pro status plus completion of Level 1 identity verification. The subscription period extends through June 11, with token allocation occurring on June 11 and distribution planned for June 12 — coinciding with SpaceX‘s anticipated Nasdaq debut.

Participants pledge USDC at an estimated $135 per token, accompanied by a 5% underwriting charge. The entry threshold sits at 100 USDC, while individual users face a ceiling of 50 subscription requests. Committed capital remains frozen until allocation completion.

Should the actual IPO price fall within 20% of the $135 estimate, Bybit executes automatic subscriptions. When the price exceeds the estimate by more than 20%, participants must provide reconfirmation during a designated timeframe. Final allocations may be fractional or completely unfilled based on overall demand levels.

As of Sunday morning, approximately 550 participants had completed pre-registration, representing roughly $9.1 million in total USDC commitments.

Understanding the xStocks Token Structure

Bybit and Kraken both employ the xStocks infrastructure, operated through Payward Services — the business-to-business division of Kraken’s parent organization. This framework originated from Backed Finance prior to Kraken’s acquisition of the company.

Backed Assets (JE) Limited, a Jersey-domiciled entity, issues these tokens. They operate as tracker certificates — bearer debt instruments designed to mirror SpaceX share price movements. Token holders do not acquire voting authority or dividend entitlements.

While Bybit’s promotional content characterizes the tokens as “backed 1:1 by real equity,” the official product documentation clarifies that underlying collateral “may not always consist of the underlying shares” and permits substitution with cash or alternative assets. Bybit further acknowledges it performs no independent collateral verification.

Kraken introduced its offering on June 5 under the SPCXx ticker symbol, accessible across more than 110 jurisdictions. While Bybit excludes the European Economic Area from its program, Kraken provides access to these regions through a Cyprus-regulated subsidiary.

SpaceX IPO Context and Scale

A consortium of 23 financial institutions is orchestrating SpaceX’s public offering. Goldman Sachs serves as lead underwriter, with Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase following in the syndicate hierarchy. The aerospace company pursues a $1.75 trillion market capitalization with shares priced at $135, aiming to secure approximately $75 billion in capital.

Investor appetite has climbed to roughly $150 billion — approximately twice the company’s fundraising target.

The xStocks tokenization methodology diverges from approaches adopted by competing crypto platforms. Coinbase, Binance, OKX, Bitget, and additional exchanges have instead launched pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts tied to SpaceX. These alternative products carry distinct hazards — Ventuals, one platform provider, recently issued trader compensation following a data malfunction that triggered a 45% decline in its SpaceX perpetual contract within 30 minutes.

SpaceX’s public offering follows its consolidation with Elon Musk’s xAI, which had previously acquired social media platform X.

Syscoin has paused its bridge after a security incident created about 5 billion unauthorized SYS outputs through its UTXO bridge path.

The project said an attacker exploited a validation issue in the bridge flow. The flaw caused the system to incorrectly accept or read a transaction proof and create SYS output that should not have been produced.

Meanwhile, SYS traded near $0.00165 after the update, with a market cap of about $9.7 million, according to CoinGecko. The token was down sharply from its all-time high of $1.30, showing weak market confidence around the project. The token has fallen nearly 10% in the last 24 hours.

Syscoin bridge paused during investigation

Syscoin said the bridge remains paused while the team investigates the incident, completes a fix, and decides how to address the unauthorized SYS output.

“The Syscoin bridge is currently paused while the team investigates,” the project said in its preliminary postmortem.

The team said users should not interact with the bridge while it remains offline. It also said the incident is being treated as a top priority.

Syscoin said it has already identified the affected validation path. The team said it has a fix in place, but review and implementation are still ongoing.

5B SYS output traced on UTXO chain

According to Syscoin, the attacker created an unauthorized output of about 5B SYS through the UTXO bridge path.

The funds were first sent to one address before being spent and split into other outputs. Syscoin said the largest tainted balances appear linked to two addresses holding about 4B SYS and 1B SYS.

The team published the initial UTXO transaction, the later spend, and the split transaction. It said it is tracing the funds across the UTXO trail.

Syscoin also said it is working with exchanges and ecosystem partners. The goal is to stop tainted SYS from being deposited, traded, or spread further.

Exchanges asked to monitor tainted SYS

Syscoin said it contacted exchanges and relevant partners after the incident. The project asked them to blacklist, freeze, or closely monitor SYS deposits tied to the tainted outputs.

The team also asked partners to watch descendant spends from the affected UTXO trail. This step aims to reduce the chance that the unauthorized SYS reaches open markets.

The incident comes as cross-chain bridge security remains under close watch across crypto. Bridges often handle funds across different chains, making validation errors costly when attackers find a weak path.

Related reports show that bridge attacks have remained active in 2026, with several cross-chain systems hit in recent months.

Related crypto.news coverage previously described Syscoin as a dual-layer blockchain that combines Bitcoin-style security with Ethereum-like smart contract support.

That background matters because the latest incident involved Syscoin’s bridge system, which connects activity across its native UTXO side and related blockchain infrastructure.

Separate market reports have also tracked rising bridge risks across the wider crypto sector. Recent cases include attacks on cross-chain systems where flaws or key failures allowed attackers to move large amounts of assets.

For Syscoin, the next update will likely focus on the final remediation plan. The team said it will share more information after it completes the fix and decides how to neutralize the unauthorized output.

BTCTOP CEO Jiang Zhuoer has pushed back against fears that Strategy could become a major Bitcoin seller if the market falls further.

In a post on X, Jiang said he does not believe Strategy will “substantially net sell BTC.” He argued that the company still has a strong reason to protect its public image as a long-term Bitcoin holder.

BTCTOP CEO questions Strategy selloff fears

Jiang said Strategy’s brand is closely tied to the idea that it does not sell Bitcoin in size. In his view, breaking that image could cost the company more than it gains from reducing exposure.

He said even a fall in Bitcoin to $30,000 would not make Strategy’s debt profile unmanageable. According to Jiang, its leverage ratio would rise from about 5% to around 10% under that scenario.

That view differs from recent market concerns. Some investors have warned that Strategy may face more pressure if Bitcoin, MSTR shares, and STRC preferred stock all weaken at the same time.

STRC interest logic stays in focus

Jiang also discussed Strategy’s STRC interest coverage model. He said the company can sell older, low-cost Bitcoin and book accounting gains to cover STRC interest.

He added that new STRC proceeds can still support further Bitcoin purchases. Under that structure, Strategy may keep the wider message that it remains a net buyer over time.

Crypto.news recently reported that Strategy sold 32 BTC between May 26 and May 31 at an average price of $77,135. The sale raised about $2.5 million and was linked to preferred stock dividend funding.

The sale was small compared with Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings, but it drew attention because Michael Saylor had long promoted a no-sell Bitcoin stance.

Grayscale warns on funding pressure

As previously reported by crypto.news, Grayscale warned that weaker STRC and MSTR prices could limit Strategy’s ability to raise new capital for more Bitcoin purchases.

Grayscale said falling STRC prices may require Strategy to raise dividend rates, increasing cash obligations. That could make future Bitcoin sales more likely if other funding channels stay weak.

Strategy’s latest large buy came in May, when it bought 24,869 BTC for about $2.01 billion. That lifted its holdings to 843,738 BTC, more than 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed supply.

The company funded that purchase through MSTR common stock and STRC preferred stock sales, showing how central capital markets remain to its Bitcoin strategy.

For now, Jiang’s view is that Strategy still has room to manage a deeper Bitcoin drawdown. His argument rests on low leverage, accounting flexibility, and the company’s need to protect its long-term Bitcoin narrative.

A New York judge has halted proceedings in a lawsuit seeking ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets, delaying any attempt to secure a default judgment before a July 14 court hearing.

According to court filings made public on June 5, New York Supreme Court Justice Kathy J. King signed an order to show cause on June 4 that stays all further proceedings related to the plaintiffs’ request for a declaratory judgment. 

The order specifically blocks any application for an inquest or default judgment until oral arguments are heard on July 14 at the New York County courthouse.

Court records show King removed the phrase “and determination” from the standard stay language, leaving the case paused until the scheduled hearing rather than until a later ruling is issued.

A separate order filed the same day found an earlier request for injunctive relief to be moot, with the court citing the plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint filed on May 1.

Challenge to dormant wallet ownership claim gains time

The lawsuit, filed under the caption ABC Company, XYZ Company, and Noah Doe v. John Does 1-39,069, seeks a court declaration that the plaintiffs legally own thousands of dormant Bitcoin addresses under New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B, the state’s lost-and-found property statute.

Filed on May 1 through Brooklyn law firm Lewis & Lin LLC, the complaint argues that plaintiff Noah Doe discovered a security vulnerability in October 2024 that allegedly left certain wallet owners permanently unable to access their Bitcoin. 

According to the complaint, Doe developed a proprietary algorithm to identify wallets that he believes meet the legal standard for abandonment, reported the findings to the NYPD, and spent more than a year attempting to locate the owners.

The filing further states that Doe assigned ownership rights in all but 18 wallets to ABC Company in December 2025, after which ABC Company transferred a 17.7% interest to XYZ Company.

Public attention around the case increased after Sani, founder of blockchain analytics platform Timechain Index, highlighted the lawsuit on X in May. Sani estimated that the listed wallets held roughly 3.7 million BTC, worth about $285 billion at the time.

Separately, Galaxy Research estimated that 39,069 addresses named in the lawsuit contained approximately 3.8 million BTC. Using Bitcoin prices available when its analysis was published in May, Galaxy valued those holdings at roughly $293.5 billion.

Amicus filing challenges legal theory

Among the addresses identified in the complaint are the “1Feex” wallet, which public reporting has long linked to the 2011 Mt. Gox hack, and wallets that Galaxy Research said display Satoshi-era “Patoshi” mining patterns commonly associated with Bitcoin’s creator. The complaint also references the “12c6D” address, another wallet widely associated with Satoshi Nakamoto.

The plaintiffs’ valuation approach differs significantly from those estimates. According to the complaint, an unnamed expert assessed each wallet at less than $10 because of the uncertainty involved in recovering any value from the assets.

Meanwhile, opposition to the lawsuit has begun to emerge in court filings. Ian R. Cohen, an M&A attorney at IRC Legal Advisors LLC who states that he holds Bitcoin in self-custody, filed a motion on May 29 seeking permission to appear as amicus curiae.

In his filing, Cohen said he does not represent any party in the case and has no financial interest in the outcome. He submitted a 26-page proposed brief challenging the plaintiffs’ interpretation of New York’s lost-property law and its application to self-custodied Bitcoin wallets.

The case is expected to test whether dormant blockchain addresses can be treated as abandoned property under existing state law, a question that has not yet been formally resolved by New York courts. 

Timechain Index founder Sani has also pointed to a potential procedural issue, noting that legal notices were reportedly sent to Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash addresses, while some older Satoshi-era holdings remain stored in Pay-to-Public-Key scripts that may not have received notice.

The June 2026 crypto crash did not have one cause. It had a convergence.

Over a brutal stretch from late May into early June, Bitcoin fell from above $80,000 to below $62,000, Ethereum collapsed toward $1,500, roughly $250 billion evaporated from the total crypto market, and well over $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated.

But unlike a single-catalyst crash, this one was the product of four distinct forces arriving at once, each amplifying the others: a hawkish Federal Reserve that crushed hopes for rate cuts, fresh US-Iran military strikes that shattered a fragile ceasefire, Michael Saylor’s Strategy breaking a years-long vow by selling Bitcoin, and the longest Bitcoin ETF outflow streak ever recorded.

None of them alone would have produced a crash of this severity. Together, landing in a market already stretched thin on leverage, they produced a cascade.

This piece is the anatomy of that crash: the four forces, how they compounded, and why understanding the convergence matters more than blaming any single trigger.