On May 22, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX, said that Hyperliquid (HYPE -3.16%), Zcash (ZEC -4.07%), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR +0.25%) were the "holy trinity" of crypto investments, suggesting that they each would bring something new and enduringly valuable to the crypto sector. He then sold his holdings of all of them by June 5. But by early September, with the prices of all three flying far higher than when he sold, he was publicly joking about being sidelined from the rally.
So are these coins still worth buying, or was Hayes right to change his mind and sell them?
Image source: Getty Images.
Zcash is carrying more private transactions than ever
Zcash is a coin that lets its holders put their coins into "shielded" pools, where cryptographic proofs are used to hide the sender, receiver, and amount of each transaction. On paper, Zcash's supply policy is based on Bitcoin's, with a capped supply, regular halvings to reduce the production of new supply, and no authority that allows for the minting of more.
Hayes sold his holdings of Zcash for the same reason I did (before my buying back later). In late May 2026, a researcher found a severe flaw in the protocol, which, in theory, could have allowed for the counterfeiting of an infinite quantity of coins in the main shielded pool. Because the counterfeits would be created privately, it'd be difficult to tell if the coin's supply cap was still operational. On July 28, an upgrade called Ironwood moved the private funds into a new, mathematically verified pool without the vulnerability.
CRYPTO: ZEC
Key Data Points
As of Sept. 24, 29% of all Zcash on the network was shielded, versus 23.3% of the supply a year prior. More private activity makes each shielded coin harder to trace, so the growth is a sign that the network is getting stronger. When paired with the developer team's quick response to the critical flaw, so as to bolster confidence in Zcash's ability to be a finite store of value, the coin is on a long-term trajectory that makes it worth buying in most crypto portfolios.
NEAR could benefit from Zcash's privacy boom
Hayes originally argued that NEAR can be a way to translate Zcash's privacy features across blockchains.
In case you aren't familiar, NEAR's "intents" system lets users articulate a crypto-financial goal -- for instance, swapping shielded Zcash for a stablecoin on another blockchain -- while a pool of competing market makers works to fill the order as cheaply and quickly as possible. Hayes's point was that Zcash and NEAR together let privately held capital acquire assets outside Zcash's shielded pools without revealing who is buying.
CRYPTO: NEAR
Key Data Points
NEAR brought in $2.1 million in net protocol revenue from fees during the 30 days ending on Sept. 24. Since February 2026, that revenue has been used to buy NEAR on the open market, which offsets a fraction of new token issuance. If Zcash does ultimately boost demand for NEAR, holders of NEAR will be significantly rewarded for the additional network activity. There's also a solid chance that it'll play well with other privacy chains and coins in the future.
Until then, it's still worth buying in a small allocation, assuming your crypto portfolio is already fully packed with the majors and safer investments.
Hyperliquid spends most of its income on buying its own token
Hyperliquid is a decentralized crypto exchange that's known for its perpetual futures contract markets.
It brought in $429 million in revenue from Jan. 1 to Sept. 15 alone, and about 99% of its protocol fees are spent on buying back its own token. Hayes said he sold it over rising energy prices, upcoming AI stock market listings, and his belief that markets could peak by September 2026.
CRYPTO: HYPE
Key Data Points
Hyperliquid launched prediction markets in May 2026. In July, it allowed users who stake 500,000 HYPE to deploy their own, joining a different feature that enables users to launch their own perpetuals markets. Each new market that gets launched thus locks up more HYPE, and there's no shortage of new markets being initiated, nor of traders looking to deploy their capital using the platform.
In just a couple of years since its launch, the exchange has risen to be one of the top 10 coins by market cap, beating out powerful competitors every step of the way.
Given its buyback flywheel and self-funding market expansion mechanisms, Hyperliquid is likely here to stay, and it's just getting started with its growth trajectory. Therefore, much like Zcash, Hyperliquid is very much worth buying for most crypto portfolios.
