Arthur Hayes buys cryptocurrencies at high prices and sells at a loss

Famous trader and BitMEX co-owner Arthur Hayes continues to demonstrate a classic example of unsuccessful trading in the cryptocurrency market. His history of transactions with major altcoins shows how one can invest significant amounts at high prices and then liquidate positions at substantially lower prices, incurring serious losses.

Boring story with PENDLE: bought high, sold low

Let’s start with PENDLE — a DeFi fixed-income protocol. The investor purchased 1.4 million tokens at $2.06 each, investing about $2.87 million in the project. Later, he sold 327,869 tokens at $1.53, receiving only $502K. The missed profit is obvious: if he had sold at the original purchase price, the proceeds would have been significantly higher. The current value of PENDLE is $1.13 (as of February 2026), which further highlights the economic failure of this decision.

ETH and LIDO: a series of unsuccessful bets

A similar pattern develops with other projects. With ENA (Ethena), the trader initially accumulated 15.8 million tokens at $0.23, investing $3.6 million. Then he sold 3.6 million units at $0.14, earning just $499K — a clear loss. Today, ENA is trading at $0.12, confirming the overall decline of this asset in the market.

The story with LDO (Lido DAO Token) is no less sad. He bought 2.3 million tokens at $0.56 (an investment of $1.29 million), and sold 2.31 million at $0.42, with proceeds of $980K. With LDO’s current price at $0.33, it’s clear that time did not help fix this decision.

Why do even well-known players lose money so expensively?

This example shows the universal truth of the crypto market: portfolio size and public visibility do not guarantee trading success. Often, large players buy assets at high prices during hype peaks and then are forced to sell during dips, crystallizing losses. The lack of a clear exit strategy and the inability to read market dynamics lead to such results even for industry veterans.