According to CoinMeta, co-founder Arthur Hayes of BitMEX announced on August 18th that he would "return" to lead Flop Labs, a new project aimed at developing artificial intelligence-powered blockchain infrastructure. In the announcement, it was stated that the network's native token, Flop, would be launched without any pre-sales or venture capital allocation, describing this as a "100% fair launch." Airdrops are expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the goal of initiating the genesis block of the Flop network in the first quarter of 2027. Hayes stated that he would "lead" Flop Labs, but did not clarify his responsibilities, ownership, or compensation. His social media profile currently identifies him as the company's CEO, while he also retains his position as the Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom. Flop Labs introduced the network through its official social media account, but has not yet disclosed the complete development team, legal entity, headquarters, or jurisdiction. The project plans to allow autonomous software agents to use Flop tokens to purchase computing power, data storage, and other digital services.