DeutschWhen Arthur Hayes talks about the crypto market, the industry listens closely. The former BitMEX chief is considered one of the loudest, most provocative, and at the same time most accurate voices in the scene. This time he’s causing a stir with a thesis that sounds almost like a script from a dystopian tech thriller: war, artificial intelligence, and money printing are set to trigger the next big crypto rally.
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In a podcast by “The Rollup,” Hayes explained together with Near founder Illia Polosukhin why he sees enormous potential for certain altcoins right now. Not the entire market will explode, but only selected projects with a clear function and real utility.
Arthur Hayes with a bold prediction: These altcoins could explode
The basic idea behind it is simple – and at the same time explosive. According to Hayes, the US, China, and Europe will have to invest enormous sums to finance both geopolitical conflicts and the global race for artificial intelligence. New data centers, chips, infrastructure, and military technologies consume capital on a gigantic scale. And that’s exactly why money will be created again. Hayes believes this fresh capital will flow into Bitcoin first. After that, part of it could move into selected altcoins.
That’s exactly where he sees the next big speculation phase. Particularly striking: Hayes isn’t betting on meme coins or short-term trends, but on the topic of privacy. For him, data protection will become the big narrative of the coming years. His probably clearest statement therefore concerns Zcash. The privacy coin has now become his second-largest position overall. The reasoning sounds almost banal – and precisely because of that, understandable. People don’t want everyone to see their transactions.
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Nobody wants to reveal their entire wallet when buying coffee or make salary payments public. What’s taken for granted in traditional banking is still missing from many blockchain systems today. Illia Polosukhin, founder of Near Protocol, strikes the same note. Without privacy, there will be no broad crypto adoption. The era of hundreds of interchangeable Layer 1 and Layer 2 projects is over. What matters going forward are real applications and actual users.
The next crypto rally?
Hayes is therefore particularly bullish on NEAR. The project enables anonymous transfers between different networks and could benefit massively as a result. His prediction sounds almost absurd: while Zcash could increase fivefold in the next twelve months according to Hayes, he even sees a possible 20-fold growth for Near.
Such statements have been part of the former exchange chief’s style for years. But this time it’s striking how clearly his argument has changed. Pure speculation isn’t at the center, but infrastructure, data protection, and technological relevance. As a third favorite, Hayes also mentions Hyperliquid. According to him, the platform could become serious competition for Binance. He particularly highlights the token model: no aggressive VC sales, community participation in revenue, and a more decentralized approach.
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A new trend is thus emerging for the crypto market as a whole. The era of indiscriminate euphoria seems to be over. Instead, the focus is shifting to projects that solve concrete problems or at least credibly claim to do exactly that. Whether Hayes is right again with his predictions remains to be seen. One thing is certain: if the market tips back into a euphoria phase, privacy, AI infrastructure, and decentralized financial models are likely to play a bigger role than many investors have expected so far. (mck)
