Bitcoin and crypto prices have struggled over the last six months, with the bitcoin price collapsing amid fears of global order “break down.”
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The bitcoin price has lost 50% of its $126,000 per bitcoin October peak, wiping $2 trillion from the combined crypto market, even as Tesla billionaire Elon Musk confirms a bitcoin and crypto price “game-changer.”
Now, as , legendary crypto trader Arthur Hayes has predicted a financial crisis worse than 2008 will catapult the bitcoin price to a record high.
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"This AI financial crisis will restart the money printing machine," Hayes, a cofounder of the bitcoin and crypto derivatives pioneer BitMex who now runs the Maelstrom family office, wrote in a blog post, pointing to the 2023 regional U.S. banking crisis that “destroyed" three banks in just two weeks.
"This time it will be much worse, as the genesis of the crisis is the unstoppable nature of AI, a narrative the market believes and is terrified by."
Hayes predicted that the coming artificial intelligence boom will result in a white-collar jobs apocalypse that will plunge the U.S. economy into a deflationary spiral and spur the Federal Reserve into massive money printing, devaluing the U.S. dollar and sending the bitcoin price sharply higher.
“The Fed printed money for over a decade to repair the financial system in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. I expect a similar thrust higher in Fed monetary shenanigans in 2026 once ?a wide swath of [non-too-big-to-fail banks] will go under if they don’t solve their internal political squabbles and print [that] money,” Hayes wrote, adding that “deflation is bad, but ultimately good for fiat credit-sensitive assets like bitcoin."
Hayes warning to the Fed comes as fears of impending financial doom swirl, pushing the closely-watched bitcoin fear and greed index to record lows.
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This month, billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio warned recent geopolitical event are signs the world order is breaking down, piling pressure on the U.S. dollar.
“Sell out of all debt and buy gold because wars are financed by borrowing and printing money, which devalues debt and money, and because there is a justifiable reluctance to accept credit,” Dalio, who has repeatedly warned that the era of dollar dominance is coming to an end, wrote in his latest, viral X essay, predicting imminent conflict will result in the devaluation of the dollar.
While a weaker dollar has historically been a bullish signal for bitcoin, since early 2025 bitcoin has developed a positive correlation to the dollar, matching its rises and falls, it was noted by Coindesk.