Hayes Names HYPE, ZEC, NEAR Altcoin ‘Holy Trinity’ on Standalone Growth Drivers

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Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, has named Hyperliquid’s HYPE, Zcash’s ZEC and Near Protocol’s NEAR a so-called “holy trinity.” He argues the three tokens have independent demand drivers that do not depend on Bitcoin hitting fresh record highs.

DappRadar reported on May 26 that Hayes sees HYPE, ZEC and NEAR not as simple beneficiaries of altcoin rotation but as assets with distinct structural growth engines. ZEC later climbed to $675, its highest level in five months, while NEAR surged 80% over the past seven days. HYPE has also continued to advance despite weak market sentiment.

At the core of Hayes’s argument is the view that the three assets are supported by independent fundamentals rather than speculative beta. For HYPE, the main driver is protocol revenue. For NEAR, it is demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. For ZEC, it is privacy demand, regulatory pressure and expectations for quantum-resistant cryptography.

For HYPE, investors have focused on a structure in which 97% of Hyperliquid’s revenue is used for HYPE buybacks and burns. DappRadar described that as a cash-flow-based demand model that is rare in crypto markets. Hyperliquid recorded $2.6 trillion in notional trading volume in 2025, and daily revenue rose to $4.3 million in January 2026, the report said. Active users were estimated at about 1.4 million.

NEAR is tied to demand for AI infrastructure. The fact that co-founder Illia Polosukhin contributed to transformer research has also added to the narrative. NEAR Intents processed about $800 million in swaps and payments in the 30 days before Hayes’s remarks, according to DappRadar. Cumulative volume reached about $1.8 billion, and users topped 120,000.

Still, some question whether NEAR’s decentralized-finance total value locked, or TVL, is large enough relative to its market capitalization. DappRadar said wallet activity increased around Nearcon 2026, but similar post-conference gains in the past did not last. The key test is whether daily active wallets and TVL in DeFi applications can remain stable beyond a temporary event-driven boost.

For ZEC, the central issue is privacy adoption at the transaction layer rather than growth in the DeFi ecosystem. Coin Metrics data show about 4.9 million ZEC are now held in shielded addresses, or roughly 30% of circulating supply. That is up sharply from 11% at the start of 2025. Because the shift began before Hayes’s comments and before Grayscale filed for an exchange-traded fund, it is being interpreted as a genuine change in holder behavior.

The market does not view the case for all three assets as equally proven. HYPE has the clearest foundation because its revenue and buyback structure can be verified through on-chain data. Even so, monthly team token unlocks of about 1.2 million HYPE remain a supply overhang.

For ZEC, the increase in shielded-address supply is the strongest standalone signal, though the token still lacks meaningful DeFi TVL. NEAR has a differentiated narrative around AI and an intents-based transaction standard, but the market still needs evidence that demand can persist beyond the conference effect.

DappRadar said Hayes’s “holy trinity” thesis will need further confirmation from on-chain metrics, including growth in NEAR DeFi active wallets, NEAR TVL holding above prior support levels, and rising shielded transaction volume for ZEC. For the rally in the three tokens to outlast a short-term theme, each asset’s structural demand will need to show up in the data.