Arthur Hayes Drops $1M on Ethena as Hyperliquid USDH Vote Looms - Bullish Signal or Strategic Play?

Crypto heavyweight Arthur Hayes just placed a million-dollar bet on Ethena—timing it perfectly ahead of Hyperliquid's crucial USDH governance vote.

The Move That's Turning Heads

Hayes isn't just throwing cash around. His seven-figure Ethena purchase screams conviction—right as Hyperliquid prepares to decide USDH's fate. This isn't casual investing; it's a statement.

Why Ethena? Why Now?

Ethena's synthetic dollar protocol has been gaining traction, offering yields that make traditional finance look like it's still using abacuses. Hayes' move hints at deeper confidence in its mechanics—especially with USDH integration on the line.

The Bigger Picture

This isn't just about one whale's trade. Hayes' timing suggests he knows something—or wants us to think he does. Either way, it's a power play that could sway votes, shift narratives, and maybe even move markets.

Of course, in crypto, a 'strategic investment' is just a fancy term for a gamble with better PR. But when Hayes bets, the world watches—even if it's just to see if the house wins again.

Hyperliquid validators to vote on USDH stablecoin on Sunday

According to Arkham Intelligence data, Arthur Hayes’ wallet transacted on several tokens, including ENA, ETH, and USDC.

In the past 17 hours, he transferred 1.54 million USDC, 578,956 ENA, and 1.22 million USDC into the wallet. He also purchased 322,456 and 322,373 ENA tokens in subsequent buys, bringing the total accumulation in just two days to approximately 1,223,815 ENA tokens, which is worth about $995,000.

Arthur Hayes(@CryptoHayes) spent 1.02M $USDC to buy 1.34M $ENA again in the past 8 hours and currently holds 4.45M $ENA(3.48M).https://t.co/eSqihcbm6e pic.twitter.com/qahbRH28Sh

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 9, 2025

Ethena is also contending for the Hyperliquid USDH stablecoin, which has a scheduled vote on Sunday this week among other contenders. The firm proposed to use its USDtb stablecoin to validate USDH using BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. The proposal will offer 95% of revenue to support Hyperliquid and cover the costs of moving trading pairs from USDC. 

David Lawant, head of research at FalconX, described Ethena’s proposal as the strongest bid among the contenders, citing the firm’s market cap of over $5.39 billion and its $11.73 billion FDV. Hyperliquid, on the other hand, has a market cap of $18.48 billion and $55.34 billion in FDV.

Kirby Ong, founder of HypurrCollective, disagreed that personal purchases don’t mean a direct vote of confidence. He said that Hayes’ purchases reflect only personal positioning and not Ethena’s backing of the USDH decision. The HypurrCollective founder noted that the decision on USDH stablecoin will depend on Ethena’s USDtb alignment with the USDH stablecoin, staker support, and the perceived long-term value for the ecosystem. 

Paxos, which is backed by PayPal, has also submitted a revised proposal that pledges a larger share of reserve yield to Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund. The PayPal-backed firm also announced that it had received an offer from Kraken exchange to list USDH and HYPE. The process is pending standard review procedures, with free on and off-ramp. 

Ethena’s DeFi market share expands with over $13B in TVL 

Native Markets submitted a proposal that touches on GENIUS-compliant USDH and is managed via Stripe’s Bridge. The submission also proposed a reserve in cash and Treasuries overseen by BlackRock and Superstate. The proceeds WOULD be split evenly between the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund and ecosystem growth. 

Sky, the firm that issues USDS, FRAX Finance, which proposed a bank-partnered initiative, and Agora, which pledged to channel all net revenue back into Hyperliquid, are some other contenders participating in the Sunday bid. 

Arthur Hayes purchased 2.16 million ENA tokens worth over $1 million in July. The accumulation coincided with a 16% price jump for ENA and a daily trading volume of $1.59 billion. ENA has a market cap of $5.39 billion and a daily trading volume of $708.1 million, down 46.35% in the last 24 hours. The token has also recorded an 11% upward movement in the last 7 days.

StablecoinX has also shown interest in the ENA token, showing growing investor participation in the Ethena ecosystem. Cryptopolitan reported recently that StablecoinX raised $890 million to purchase and manage ENA tokens via a treasury strategy. The strategy aims to acquire $5 million worth of ENA tokens daily over six weeks and accumulate approximately 8% of the circulating supply. Its DeFi footprint has also expanded, with a TVL of more than $13 billion. 

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