Veteran trader takes on billionaire in ASTER vs. HYPE showdown

A 69-year-old man, Richard E. Ptardio, has called billionaire Arthur Hayes's recent sell-off 'a pity'.

Hayes, former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and a hedge fund manager, sold 96.6K HYPE (Hyperliquid's token)– worth $5.1 million, on Sept. 21. Only three weeks earlier Hayes predicted HYPE could pump up to 126x by 2028.

Now, Ptardio has made a video directed towards Hayes, saying, "Mr. Hayes, old chap, I hear you've sold off your hype cryptocurrency tokens. A pity. You know, regret is the only asset that compounds forever, and I dare say you'll soon be overexposed."

Ptardio, who has served 35 years on trading desks in London, Hong Kong, and New York, entered the crypto space in 2024. He calls his time in the crypto industry "the most life-changing chapter of my twilight years."

Though relatively new to crypto, he has over 19,000 followers. His video message to Hayes has over 146,000 views.

Why did Arthur Hayes sell HYPE?

Hayes revealed that he is concerned that ‘competitor' projects could lead to a collapse in the token's price to zero, resulting in strong selling pressure from November. HYPE, saw its perpetual shares collapse to 33% as more traders rushed to acquire other tokens, such as LIGHTER and ASTER.Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer of Maelstrom, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Getty Images

Hayes wondered if the token would have strong enough revenues to support a lot of buybacks in time to counteract that pressure. Hayes also compared HYPE's current progress with that of some other DeFi protocols, noting that it still lags behind.

"I saw that $ASTER [is at] number three [on DeFi aggregator], you know, both doing, you know, two, three, $4 billion ADV days, and HYPE is only about 4.5 billion. Okay, this isn't good. I need help to make money."

Elaborating on his investment strategy, Hayes noted that he compares short-term versus long-term probabilities and then decides to sell or rebuy tokens based on this probabilistic basis.

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HYPE versus ASTER

As of press time, HYPE remains the most popular perp-DEX, particularly when considering longer time frames, such as 30 days or a quarter, as per data. ASTER is making significant strides, sometimes surpassing HYPE in terms of daily volume and garnering attention and resources.

The competition is real. HYPE's lead is in danger but not yet lost in many important areas (market share over longer periods, TVL, cumulative volume).

If ASTER continues to grow (in terms of liquidity, features, and user trust), it may slowly erode Hyperliquid's lead. However, for that to happen, short-term spikes in volume and hype must turn into steady performance.

Story Continues

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This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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