PANews reported on April 16th that BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes stated in a recent article that the crypto market is currently in a "no-trading zone," with his fund Maelstrom making almost no trades in the first quarter due to a lack of clear market direction. He believes that AI agents will destroy the job prospects of ordinary knowledge workers in developed economies, triggering a deflationary financial collapse, while the US-Iran conflict has made the situation in the Strait of Hormuz a core variable in the market. Hayes ruled out a nuclear annihilation scenario, focusing on three paths: first, the war ends but AI replaces white-collar workers, leading to an economic recession; second, Iran continues to control the Strait, forcing countries to sell dollar assets and buy gold and yuan to pay tolls, impacting the petrodollar system; third, the US militarily destroys Iran, but this triggers a shutdown of energy production in the Gulf and global inflation.

Hayes points out that the wave of white-collar unemployment caused by AI could be more severe than the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, and consumer credit defaults have already risen before the wave of layoffs. He believes that Bitcoin's value depends on the amount of fiat currency rather than its price, and that fixed-supply assets such as Bitcoin and gold will benefit if central banks print money while raising interest rates. Hayes states that Bitcoin may only rebound to $80,000-$90,000 before the Federal Reserve provides liquidity, and he is currently only willing to increase his holdings of gold and Hyperliquid's governance token, HYPE.