Briefly
The BitMEX co-founder argues that privateness may outline crypto’s subsequent commerce and disclosed a large Zcash place from his agency Maelstrom.
In a weblog submit, Hayes ties the view to credit score enlargement, power costs, and U.S. political incentives shaping threat property.
He argues that increasing greenback liquidity may help Bitcoin, crypto, and privacy-focused property.
Arthur Hayes is betting that privateness will outline crypto’s subsequent commerce, arguing that Bitcoin’s institutional success has opened room for extra adversarial property like Zcash.
The BitMEX co-founder laid out his ideas on Tuesday in a weblog submit the place he disclosed that his household workplace, Maelstrom, has already constructed a large Zcash place and framed privateness as an underpriced response to increasing state surveillance and sanctions enforcement.
“Trying into the long run, this 12 months’s dominant narrative will encompass privateness,” Hayes wrote. He added that Zcash will turn into the “privateness beta,” and that Maelstrom is “already lengthy a fuck ton of that at glorious costs obtained in 3Q25.”
The stance marks a shift for Hayes, who has sometimes centered Bitcoin as the first beneficiary of macro liquidity cycles, and reframes privateness as a part of the identical macro logic as an alternative of a standalone wager.
Hayes tied the privateness commerce to a broader thesis that U.S. political incentives favor aggressive credit score enlargement, with power costs ostensibly working as the important thing constraint over how far policymakers can push stimulus with out triggering voter backlash.
He additional framed privateness as a downstream impact of sustained deficits, strain to maintain economies operating scorching, and tighter controls on capital flows, with privacy-focused property comparable to Zcash rising as an extra channel for crypto demand.
“The inflation that torpedoes re-election odds is of the meals and power selection,” he argued, including that “the important thing metric for People is the value of gasoline.”
This comes because the U.S. carried out strikes in Venezuela and took President Nicolás Maduro into custody forward of an look in a Manhattan federal courtroom this week, the place he pleaded not responsible. The transfer briefly pushed oil costs to four-year lows.
“Trump clearly believes that if he activates the faucet, oil will gush forth from Venezuela into the Gulf of Mexico refineries, and low-cost gasoline will placate the plebes by tamping down power inflation,” Hayes wrote.
Towards that backdrop, Hayes argued that political efforts to comprise power costs go away room for continued credit score enlargement, supporting Bitcoin and broader crypto markets.
“As the quantity of {dollars} expands, the value of Bitcoin and sure cryptos will sky rocket,” Hayes wrote.
Decrypt has reached out to Maelstrom and Hayes for remark and can replace this piece ought to they reply.
Hayes and Zcash
Hayes has been laying some groundwork for this view since late final 12 months.
In an October tweet, Hayes stated he mentioned Zcash and privateness with AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant over dinner, exhibiting an early curiosity earlier than disclosing a proper place.
A month later, Hayes went additional, saying that Zcash had turn into the second-largest liquid holding in Maelstrom’s portfolio behind Bitcoin, marking the primary time he publicly characterised ZEC as a significant place for the funding agency he co-founded.
Zcash was buying and selling at round $120 when Hayes posted in October, and subsequently climbed to $698 by mid-November. The privateness coin is priced at $514 at press time, having posted positive factors of 770% over the previous 12 months, per CoinGecko information.
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