Bitcoin could retest $80K as looming credit stress pressures markets: Arthur Hayes

Key Takeaways

• Arthur Hayes predicts Bitcoin could retest $80,000 before potentially surging to $200,000 or higher if dollar liquidity conditions change.
• Institutional strategies and ETF flows are influencing Bitcoin volatility, with Zcash highlighted as a potential outperformer in a negative dollar liquidity environment.

Bitcoin could slip to the mid-$80,000 range as tightening liquidity and looming credit stress weigh on risk assets, said BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes in a recent blog article .

“The Bitcoin dive from $125,000 to the low $90,000s whilst the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices hover around all-time highs tells me that a credit event is brewing,” Hayes explained. “I corroborate this view when I observe the decline in my dollar liquidity index from July until now.”

The well-known macro voice in the crypto space expects a 10–20% drawdown in equities and a surge in the 10-year yield, which would force policymakers to roll out an emergency liquidity program to stabilize markets.

If that panic triggers renewed stimulus, Hayes said Bitcoin could rebound violently from an $80,000–$85,000 washout and accelerate into a $200,00–$250,000 blow-off move by the end of the year.

Flow-driven demand exposes true liquidity crunch

On ETF flows, Hayes argued that much of Bitcoin’s earlier strength was built on unstable flow dynamics rather than real institutional conviction.

ETF inflows came largely from hedge funds and banks running basis trades (long the ETF, short CME futures) to skim the spread. When that spread narrowed, these players unwound their positions, flipping inflows into sudden outflows and triggering retail anxiety.

The same dynamic plays out in Digital Asset Treasuries, according to Hayes. These entities’ ability to accumulate more Bitcoin depends on their stock trading at a premium to their underlying holdings, and once those mNAV premiums evaporate into discounts, issuance freezes.

With both the ETF basis trade and DAT issuance stalling out, the market has lost two major sources of non-macro buying pressure, he noted.

Long-term bull case remains firm

Apart from his expectations for aggressive money printing, Hayes believes Bitcoin’s long-term bull case is strengthened by implicit validation from US President Trump and Chinese President Xi.

The analyst pointed to Beijing’s irritation over the US seizure of Bitcoin tied to the LuBian mining pool as evidence that the Chinese President views Bitcoin as valuable.