As Hyperliquid’s HYPE shares plummeted on Monday, Arthur Hayes revealed that his family office had liquidated its positions. Why a teRai, Varriale challenges his dismissal: “For four years, they prevented me from working.”
Enrico Varriale, following his dismissal ‘for just cause’ by Rai, has made his position known regarding his definitive departure from the public company. The journalist, convicted last June in the first instance for stalking and assaulting a woman, reiterated in a press release “my confidence in the judges and I remain convinced that, both in criminal and labor courts, I will be able to prove the validity of my reasons, starting with the appeal against my dismissal, for which I have already instructed my lawyers.”
Formally, the sports journalist’s dismissal is not linked to the recent legal proceedings in which he has been involved, issues that in 2022 led to his suspension as a precautionary measure (after being accused of stalking his ex-partner), which Varriale states in the current press release that he never received: “Over the last four years, Rai has completely prevented me from doing my job, but it has never suspended me from service as a precautionary measure, as there was no reason to do so. It was already convicted by the Court of Rome on January 22, 2025, for the professional disqualification imposed on me. The relevant ruling, which has only been partially complied with by the company, has not been made public by me until now out of respect for Rai, of which I have been a part for almost 40 years.”
The reasons— Returning to the reasons that led to his dismissal, Varriale adds that “in the first criminal case, there is currently a 10-month sentence, with a suspended sentence and no mention, against which I have already appealed. In the second case, the preliminary phase of the trial has not yet been concluded, and I myself have not yet been heard by the judge.”
lle décision ?
Arthur Hayes’ family office sells its HYPE
This morning, the cryptocurrency market woke up in the red, with some altcoins seeing significant declines, such as Hyperliquid’s HYPE, which was down 6.7% over 24 hours at the time of writing.
In this context, Arthur Hayes, founder of the BitMEX platform and chief investment officer of his family office Maelstrom, explained that the fund had sold at least part of its holdings.
In an article published on X, the Mealstrom teams explained that their sale was motivated by significant upcoming unlockings, which could not be offset by the Hyperliquid teams’ promises to buy back HYPE tokens:
Starting November 29, 237.8 million HYPE tokens will be released linearly over 24 months. At $50 per token, this represents $11.9 billion in releases for the team, or nearly $500 million notional put on the market each month. The problem? At current levels, buybacks can only absorb about 17%. This leaves a surplus of $410 million per month. Has the market factored in the scale of these releases?
In this case, the chart below shows (in green) that the 237.7 million HYPE tokens in question will be gradually released until October 2027:
The article then goes on to discuss HYPE Treasury Companies, highlighting the idea that they will not have the necessary scale to offset potential future sales. Finally, competition must also be taken into account, and Maelstrom cites Aster, which has been in the news in recent days thanks to the support of Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
In an article published just a month ago, Arthur Hayes had nevertheless defended the hypothesis of a 126-fold increase in the HYPE price:
In the announcement of the token sale, the entrepreneur’s comments may raise a smile, as if he were trying to justify himself:
That’s why we dumped HYPE today. But don’t worry, a x126 is still possible; 2028 is still a long way off.
Whatever the HYPE levels are in three years’ time, this reminds us once again of the famous saying that “those who give advice don’t pay the bills.” Last month, we also looked back at some points of mistrust to consider regarding the hype surrounding Hyperliquid.
