Money Printing and Wall Street's Onchain Move to Boost Cryptocurrency Prices
Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom fund, believes that US policymakers could lift cryptocurrency prices by printing more money to support AI and finance government debt. This move would be a response to the trillions of dollars needed to finance data centers for AI companies, even as their service prices fall. Hayes described the situation as a 'slow motion train wreck' that is 'happening underneath the surface.'
Hayes also mentioned a possible shift in China from an 'austerity lite' policy to substantial monetary stimulus, which could revive demand for scarce assets. He is monitoring financial stress in France, including credit-default swaps tied to BNP Paribas and French government bond spreads.
On the topic of Wall Street moving onchain, Catrina Wang, general partner at Portal Ventures, stated that 'whoever owns the customer relationship owns the economics.' This is based on tech analyst Ben Thompson's aggregation theory. Wang believes that banks and asset managers have an advantage over companies that must attract investors from scratch, as they bring an existing customer base to blockchain markets.
Justin Kugel, executive vice president of growth at World Liberty Financial, noted that despite crypto's original promise to eliminate middlemen, investors still need to decide where to put their money and how much risk to take. Many users prefer the sense of protection offered by centralized exchanges, and do not want to manage their assets themselves or assess every investment.
Franklin Templeton's Chetan Karkhanis, senior vice president of digital asset client engagement, stated that 'let us be the yield layer.' The company wants its tokenized money market funds to provide investment income alongside payment tokens. Karkhanis mentioned that some conversions involving stablecoins are already available, but more widely available options are needed across the industry.
Haonan Li, co-founder and CEO of stablecoin foreign-exchange platform Codex, said demand for stablecoin payments is growing along trade routes connecting Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa with Asia. Companies considering crypto treasury strategies need cash they can commit over a longer period without disrupting day-to-day operations, according to Ilya Podoynitsyn, co-founder and CEO of FinHarbor.