A wallet linked to BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes was topped up with 284,102 UNI tokens worth just over $2 million. The purchases occurred in two stages: approximately 244,400 UNI were acquired on Sunday and 39,700 on Monday, according to data from the Onchain Lens tracker cited by BeInCrypto. The address "Arthur Hayes 4" on Etherscan also holds approximately 8,013 Ethereum tokens. Notably, these purchases did not coincide with any protocol governance vote, update, or any obvious market catalyst. Hayes systematically avoids placing large orders on open markets, preferring to move assets through private channels — in particular through Galaxy Digital, Cumberland, and FalconX – a behavioral pattern that has been observed in the trader for years.
In September, Hayes commented on the Uniswap purchase on social network X, writing: "Time to run it back turbo. I made a nice bag on the initial pump during DeFi summer back in the day. And it's my favourite type of sushi $UNI". The reference to the "DeFi summer" refers to 2020, when decentralized finance experienced a massive boom and Hayes made significant profits on his Uniswap positions. The wordplay on the token name UNI — which in Japanese cuisine means sea urchin, a sushi delicacy – underscores the ironic tone of the statement. Earlier this year in August, Hayes rebuilt his position in Ether.fi after previously exiting it, demonstrating a consistent interest in positioning within growing DeFi segments. At the time of the purchases, UNI was trading at around $7.18, having gained 2.55% over 24 hours.
The Uniswap token rose 76.8% over the month and on Monday ranked 22nd by market capitalization ($4.47 billion), yet remains 84% below its all-time high of $44.92 set in May 2021. The lion's share of the recent growth – approximately 66% of Uniswap fees in August – comes from Robinhood Chain, launched in July as an L3 solution built on Arbitrum Orbit. Among other major Uniswap holders, mixed signals are emerging: whales tracked by Nansen analyst increased their combined UNI holdings from 3.2 million to 3.46 million tokens on September 2, yet those same wallets turned net sellers for $130,256 on decentralized exchanges, indicating partial profit-taking. How and when Hayes will extract results from this entry will become clear by the end of September.
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This material is prepared for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.