Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder and CEO of Flop Labs, laid out new details on Monday about how the Flop Network and its FLOP token could turn AI computing power into a tradable commodity. In a Substack essay titled “The Trifecta,” he proposed measuring the compute delivered for each AI inference task and using transaction data to derive a spot price for compute denominated in FLOP. There is currently no universal benchmark price for AI compute.
Hayes argued that if FLOP becomes the payments network for AI agents, the FLOP-to-compute exchange rate would become the global benchmark for spot compute, and that a liquid spot market would enable derivatives based on that price. Cointelegraph cited a July BCG report projecting the AI compute market at roughly $2.3 trillion by 2030, up from $360 billion in 2025. Flop Labs is building a network where AI agents pay for computing and decentralized memory, and in August Hayes said it planned a “massive airdrop” in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Separately, Hayes posted on X on Saturday that he “dumped it all” and took profits on Ether, Ethena (ENA) and Uniswap (UNI) holdings in Maelstrom’s directional trading book, citing “dicey” macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. Lookonchain flagged about $22 million in tokens sold by Hayes-linked wallets, including about $15 million in ETH, $2.7 million in ENA and $2.2 million in UNI.
This is news, not investment advice.
Track the market yourself with AiTraderView’s free tools: Crypto Cockpit for charts and 75+ indicators, Crypto Screener to find setups, and Crypto Portfolio to follow your holdings.
Sources:
⚠️ RISK WARNING & AI DISCLOSURE
- This information is generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and complex algorithms. While advanced, these systems can contain errors or inaccuracies and are for educational purposes only.
- Technical analysis provides no guarantees; this information is purely informative.
- All discussed scenarios are hypothetical and do not constitute predictions or expectations.
- Past performance is not an indicator of future results.
- This is not financial advice and is not intended as a call-to-action for the reader.
- No implicit direction is claimed, and no specific behavior of market participants is suggested.