Arthur Hayes Throws Down A $100K ‘Gentleman's Bet’ That This One Token Will Beat Every Top-10 Crypto By Year-End

• BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes proposed a $100,000 charitable bet that Hyperliquid's native token will outperform every other current top-10 cryptocurrency by year-end.
• Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani accepted the wager, backing Solana as HYPE's challenger, with the contest running through the beginning of 2027.
• HYPE recently climbed into CoinGecko's top-10 rankings and hit a record high, extending a sharp rally that has made it one of crypto's best-performing major tokens this year.

One of crypto's biggest winners of 2026 just got a high-profile endorsement. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes proposed a $100,000 charitable bet that Hyperliquid's HYPE token will outperform every cryptocurrency currently in the top 10 by market capitalization through year-end. Multicoin Capital's Kyle Samani accepted the wager and selected Solana as the challenger, escalating a growing debate over whether Hyperliquid can sustain its explosive rise.

Arthur Hayes And Kyle Samani Lock In $100K Charity Bet

"Hey @KyleSamani, maybe you were busy last time I pinged you," Hayes wrote on X, proposing a "gentleman's charitable bet" of $100,000 to a charity of Samani's choice that HYPE will outperform any other current top-ten cryptocurrency in USD terms "from now until year's end." He closed the post, asking Samani to name his "champion", the rival token he would back.

Hayes attached the CoinGecko table showing HYPE ranked tenth, which is up about 17% over the seven-day window. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and most of the others in the top-ten table were down over the same window.

Samani replied to Hayes, naming Solana (SOL) as the contender to HYPE. “We have a deal. 

$SOL” wrote Samani. Hayes said that the bet would run from “00:00 UTC 2 June 2026 to 00:00 1 Jan 2027 on Bybit” and will be judged on the tokens’ price against Tether’s USDT. 

Last week, Samani criticized the Hyperliquid project, saying it was just “Binance 2.0 Without A Marketing Team" while he questioned the team’s decentralization model. Samani also said Hyperliquid is now "many steps behind" and it's unlikely that major American companies will work with the platform. More broadly, he criticized the protocol for not having fully open-source code, and for having a permissioned model for token distribution and validator participation, which he argues goes against the principles of decentralization.

The wager also comes as enthusiasm around HYPE intensified across crypto circles. On X, a crypto trader pushed back against criticism of the project, calling Hyperliquid "the SpaceX of finance." 

Hyperliquid Vs. Solana: A Tale Of Two Trades In 2026 

HYPE’s price hit an all-time high on Monday at $73. As of writing, HYPE was trading at $72.5, up over 4% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, it was one of the top trending tokens with retail sentiment at an ‘extremely bullish’ zone over the past day. Similarly, chatter also stayed at ‘extremely high’ levels over the past day. 

In contrast, Solana’s price was trading at $80, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, in tandem with the broader crypto market. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around SOL was in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone over the past day, while chatter stayed at ‘normal’ levels. 

HYPE and SOL went in very opposite directions over the year-to-date window. HYPE was up about 198%, nearly tripling from its January baseline, while SOL is down about 36% over the same period. 

The two tokens diverged early, around late January, HYPE broke decisively higher, while SOL broke below its starting line and stayed there. The path of HYPE was volatile but showed persistent upward movement, moving through the 60-80% range in spring, then a steep run-up in the final stretch up to 198%. SOL was down by 36% by early February and traded in a narrow range around that level for the rest of the period, never regaining positive territory.

Additionally, SolanFloor pointed out that Solana has become the third largest venue for spot trading of HYPE tokens itself. 

Read also: Elon Musk Says His McDonald’s Dogecoin Offer Still Stands – But DOGE Fails To Rally

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