Arthur Hayes, co-founder of the Maelstrom fund, made an investment of nearly $1 million in Ethena (ENA) tokens just before an important validator vote on Hyperliquid regarding the selection of the USDH stablecoin. According to analytics platforms, Hayes purchased over 1.25 million ENA within two days. Specifically, the first purchase took place on September 8, 2025, for $521,000, and the second on September 10 for $473,000.
This is reported by Business • Media
Intense Competition for USDH: Who is Contending for Hyperliquid’s Main Stablecoin
Ethena is one of the leading contenders for the USDH ticker on the Hyperliquid platform. Its proposal is backed by BlackRock and involves using the USDtb stablecoin as collateral through the BlackRock BUIDL fund, directing 95% of revenues to Hyperliquid, as well as covering the costs of migrating trading pairs from USDC. Among Ethena’s competitors are Native Markets, Paxos Labs, Sky, Frax Finance, and Agora.
“Ethena’s proposal is a strong bid from one of the most dynamic and impressive ecosystems in the crypto industry,” noted David Lavand, head of research at FalconX.
According to Lavand, the market capitalization of USDe has already exceeded $13 billion, and the Ethena platform has executed over $23 billion in redemptions and buybacks, without any security issues. Meanwhile, some market analysts express doubts about the direct link between Arthur Hayes’ ENA purchases and the USDH vote. HypurrCollective founder Kirby Ong suggests that this may be Hayes’ personal positioning in the market rather than an attempt to influence the voting outcome.
Competitors’ Positions and Market Expectations
“Decisive factors will be the alignment of validators with stakers and whether market predictions turn into actual on-chain votes.”
The competition for USDH is heating up: as of September 2025, Native Markets is considered the favorite — according to Myriad Markets, their chances of winning are around 90%. Paxos Labs, backed by PayPal, has also updated its proposal and has arranged with Kraken to list USDH and HYPE from day one of the launch. Sky (USDS, formerly DAI), Frax Finance, and Agora are also actively competing for the right to become Hyperliquid’s main stablecoin. Agora, in particular, highlights the risks of Native Markets’ dependence on Stripe but promises to direct all profits back into Hyperliquid.
The voting results are expected on Sunday. As Kirby Ong notes, the outcome will depend on which team can convince the community of its reliability and long-term value for the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
It is also worth noting that VanEck is preparing an application to launch a spot Hyperliquid ETF in the U.S. and an ETP in Europe, indicating growing interest from major financial players in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.