Arthur Hayes Predicts Financial Crisis Could Lead to $70K Bitcoin Correction

Key Takeaways

• Bitmex Arthur Hayes sounded a crisis alarm for Bitcoin price, predicting a downfall to $70,000 levels.
• Hayes said the crisis is only short-term and predicted a price surge above $250,000 by year-end.
• The crypto market experienced a flash crash on Monday, wiping out $269 billion.

Amid a $850-million crypto bloodbath and turmoil in stock market conditions, Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of the Bitmex crypto exchange, has predicted a further downfall for Bitcoin (BTC).

Hayes predicted a mini-market crisis that could push BTC’s price down 30% from its all-time high above $109,000 in the coming weeks.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $99,000, down from $106,000 earlier last week.

Hayes Predicts Bitcoin to $70K, but $250K Still on the Cards 

In an X post on Jan. 27, Hayes called for a mini-financial crisis and predicted that BTC’s price would fall to $70,000.

Hayes predicted that the current AI-driven market crisis would lead to a crypto rout in the short term. However, he expects the crypto market to bounce back once the Federal Reserve begins its money printing spree to avert the crisis looming on the United States’s stock market.

The Federal Reserve is set to decide on the interest rate on Jan. 30. Depending on market conditions, market analysts expect it to keep it intact or lower it.

The Fed’s money-printing spree weakened the dollar’s value, and investors could turn to Bitcoin to hedge against the depleting dollar—a scenario that played out during the corona crisis.

Hayes expects Bitcoin’s price to climb to $250,000 by the end of 2025 as the Fed’s printing frenzy takes over.

Can Bitcoin Break Correlation With the Stock Market?

Bitcoin’s price correlation with the U.S. stock market has peaked at new highs, closely following the rout in the U.S. tech stock market.

This is primarily due to the flow of Wall Street money growing into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through exchange-traded funds and other crypto investment vehicles. 

Thus, the crypto market is expected to mimic the stock market, as evident in the current crisis led by DeepSeek AI launch by China.

As the image above shows, Bitcoin’s correlation with the stock market peaked during the 2020-’21 bull cycle and only reverted during the bear market.

With Donald Trump taking office last week and making key orders related to both the crypto and AI sectors, Trump’s policy changes could further influence the correlation between tech stocks and Bitcoin.

Bitcoin price predictions have often backfired for most market pundits. Historically, several market pundits have made absurd price targets during bull markets, only to be way off the mark once the bear market takes over.

Crypto enthusiast called out Hayes and reminded him of his past predictions regarding the memecoin WIF, which is currently trading at a multi-month low.