PANews reported on May 9th, citing Cryptopolitan, that Arthur Hayes stated at Consensus Miami 2026 that 99% of altcoins will eventually go to zero, but this is a normal market cleansing process. He likened weak tokens to failed stocks, pointing out that approximately 98% of companies in the S&P 500 have gone to zero since 1929, and the collapse of the crypto market will only be faster due to tokens trading 24/7, fewer restrictions, and more chaos.

Hayes argues that the market will always replace old bets with new ones, and that tokens can be viewed as software projects; most software will fail, so this is not a death sentence for crypto. He emphasizes that Bitcoin's price depends on the amount of fiat currency created, not on politics or regulation; the more money the US and the world print, the higher Bitcoin's fiat value. He criticizes the industry for focusing too much on traditional finance and regulation, arguing that Bitcoin's value lies in its ability to transfer value outside of traditional finance and banking systems, which he believes is the true meaning of crypto.