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Former Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes expects significant Bitcoin volatility in the second half of the year, fueled by the explosion of a “powder keg” due to the US banking crisis and a sharp rise in public debt.
Hayes, who currently manages cryptocurrency investment fund Maelstrom, spoke on May 26 on the What Bitcoin Did podcast, making a number of predictions about the current economic outlook and the price of bitcoin. Notably, Hayes said he doesn’t expect Bitcoin (BTC) to hit the $70,000 mark before 2024.
“I don’t think we will get $70,000 this year, I think next year we will break this barrier, then we will get hit from above [2025], [2026]and then Armageddon will come.”
He pointed to the practice of quantitative easing – an increase in the money supply – and broader social unrest as the two main drivers of such an event, which could cause stock and cryptocurrency prices to plummet.
“In a banking crisis where the federal government is issuing trillions of dollars of debt because they need to fund themselves, you are essentially picking up this powder keg of a situation that will explode in the third or fourth quarter of this year,” he said, adding , which doesn’t think bitcoin will hit a new all-time high at any time this year:
“While I think it will be good for Bitcoin in the long run, it can be quite volatile both up and down.”
Other analysts have also been positive about the price of bitcoin in the short term. Speaking to Bloomberg, Tommy Honan, head of market intelligence at cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx, said that perhaps debt relief would “put traders back on the table and spark the next big jump in the price of bitcoin.”
Last week, JPMorgan strategists reportedly said the current price of gold could mean a $45,000 price for Bitcoin, according to a May 24 report by Barron’s. Analysts saw bitcoin halving next year to support this potential price prediction. However, they also saw U.S. crypto regulatory action and the fallout from the FTX crash to “limit any upside potential.”
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Interestingly, Hayes also mentioned some of his personal investment strategies, noting that he is considering staking Ether (ETH) and is closely following the development of Bitcoin ordinals. He also mentioned that he invested in Pepe (PEPE), a frog-themed memcoin that launched on April 14th and rose over 5,000%.
Hayes is known for his unorthodox price predictions. In April 2020, he warned that the price of bitcoin could potentially fall by 57% from $7,000 to $3,000. Bitcoin, however, remained stable and rose 28% to $9,000 over the next three months.
Most recently, Hayes predicted that the price of ETH will hit $5,000 after The Ethereum Merge upgrade. Immediately after the successful implementation of The Merge, the price of Ether fell for several months before recovering along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market earlier this year.