Arthur Hayes Exposes Monad: VC Dumping Ground Trapping Retail Investors
BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes drops bombshell accusation: Monad's retail trap fueled by venture capital exit strategy.
The VC Playbook Exposed
Hayes pulls no punches labeling Monad a coordinated dump scheme—where institutional players cash out while Main Street bags hold. His track record of calling crypto manipulations gives the warning teeth.
Pattern Recognition
Seen this movie before? Pump-and-dump mechanics dressed in DeFi clothing. Venture funds secure early positions at basement prices, then orchestrate retail FOMO at peak valuations.
The Liquidity Game
When VCs flood the market with token supply, who provides the exit liquidity? Hint: it's not the guys in suits. Retail investors become the unwitting counterparty in this asymmetric trade.
Regulatory Blind Spots
Decentralized theater creates perfect cover for the oldest trick in finance—selling overpriced assets to greater fools. The SEC's jurisdiction stops where crypto buzzwords begin.
Hayes isn't just sounding alarms—he's mapping the escape routes before the trap springs shut. Because in crypto, the house always wins... until someone changes the game.
Arthur Hayes calls Monad’s setup favorable to early investors
Hayes said that MON, promoted in some conversations as a possible ethereum competitor, is structured in a way that leaves retail buyers vulnerable during its first phase of price discovery.
He described the token as a VC dump scheme, which was constructed to exploit retail investors, referring to the disparity between the fully diluted valuation and the initial amount of supply on the market. Hayes stated that a combination of small inflows can cause the price to rise, whereby the first to invest can decrease their exposure when late entrants arrive, resulting in unpredictable market dynamics.
Hayes also ruled out the opinion that Monad WOULD compete with other major networks in his remarks. According to him, the project had a zero probability of success compared to Ethereum, and it also did not align with Solana’s current status. His comments centered on token economics and distribution, rather than technical specifications, citing issues he had already voiced about assets issued with limited supply and multibillion-dollar valuations.
Abrupt reversal on MON sparks further debate
Hayes’s criticism came shortly after he entered and exited a position in MON. On November 25, he announced that he had acquired the token, even though he referred to it as another high-FDV, low-float layer-1 asset.
Hayes then changed his mind after seven hours and released a chart showing the downward movement of the token, informing his followers that he had lost the position. He wrote, “I’m out. Send this dogshit to ZERO,” which once again intensified market interest in the asset’s rapid price change.
I'm out. Send this dogshit to ZERO!$MON 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qUYgmhvPsT
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 27, 2025
The turnaround also contrasted with the past, where he had been making public speeches about some of the assets. The traders cited an example of his action of dumping all his Hyperliquid in September, just a few weeks after he had informed them that he was optimistic.
Hayes made these comments as part of a broader suggestion regarding the behavior of early-stage assets in response to concentrated trade and high fully diluted valuations. During the early stages of the token market, supply limits were still being debated by market participants, with implications for liquidity and stability as trading volumes intensified.
MON still trades in a high-risk environment in its initial post-airdrop period. As of press time, the token was trading at $0.035874, recording a 4.16% decline over the past 24 hours, with a 24-hour trading volume of $ 379,410,603.
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