BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes drew attention after selling a large portion of his Ethereum holdings and reallocating funds into decentralised finance tokens.
On-chain data showed Hayes sold 1,871 ETH over two weeks, worth about $5.53 million at the time.
The transactions suggested Ethereum was used as a funding source rather than a long-term asset exit.
Hayes later said the move reflected a portfolio rotation toward higher-return DeFi opportunities.
My portfolio is rotating out of ETH and into high-quality DeFi names.
Arthur Hayes said.
He said improving fiat liquidity could allow selected DeFi protocols to outperform.
Hayes purchased more than 961,000 PENDLE tokens, gaining exposure to yield tokenisation markets.
He also acquired roughly 2.3 million LDO, reinforcing a position in liquid staking infrastructure.
Additional capital was deployed into Ethena with purchases exceeding 10.9 million ENA tokens.
Hayes increased exposure to Ether.fi by buying more than 1.1 million ETHFI tokens across multiple trades.
The purchases targeted yield generation, staking liquidity and capital efficiency rather than speculation.
Hayes said Ethereum remains the base layer while DeFi captures higher risk-adjusted returns.
At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $3,027.20.