Why Arthur Hayes Expects Ethereum to Surge to $20,000

After setting a new all-time high price on Friday, Ethereum could still have a long way to run—at least, according to one of the crypto industry’s most outspoken backers.

BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has upped his Ethereum price target again, this time suggesting that the second largest crypto asset could jump to as high as $10,000 or $20,000 by the end of the cycle. 

Hayes outlined his price prediction—centered on his expectation of major money printing during President Donald Trump’s time in office—on the Crypto Banter podcast hosted by crypto personality Ran Neuner this week, ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.

“I think ETH goes [to] $10,000 or $20,000 before the end of the cycle,” said Hayes when asked about his price prediction. “Once it’s broken through, there’s a gap of air to the upside, and you have obviously all these digital asset treasury companies who are raising money. It’s going to be easier to raise money if the asset they’re buying has broken through all-time highs and is ascending upwards.”

Ethereum began surging upward once more on Friday, challenging its all-time high after a more doveish tone came from Powell, who signaled a rate cut could be in order. The price of ETH jumped to a new peak of $4,789 on Friday, just barely edging out the coin’s 2021 price record.

Its recent rise has been propelled in part due to the digital asset treasuries Hayes mentioned, notably BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming–the two largest ETH treasuries which combine for more than $10 billion worth of ETH. Ethereum ETFs too have contributed, adding record breaking inflows throughout July and growing to hold more than 5% of the entire ETH supply. 

Hayes has been bullish on ETH in recent months, telling Decrypt in May that he saw the second-largest crypto asset rising to $4,000-$5,000 before year’s end. He later upped that prediction in July, saying that ETH would “tear the market a new asshole” as it ripped to $10,000, once more citing its place as one of the “most hated assets.” 

Now, he’s suggesting that Ethereum could rip towards $20,000 by the end of the cycle, or the time at which the bull market ends, in part because of the amount of money the Trump administration is likely to print. 

In other words, Hayes expects the administration to institute major quantitative easing, a monetary policy where new money is created and can be used to purchase financial assets.

“We have from the middle of 2026 until Trump leaves office for them to go absolutely insane with how much they’re going to print,” Hayes told Neuner. “My base case is we are going to have a massive bull market in all types of financial assets connected to anything Trump believes is important, between now and when he exits office.”

Hayes previously leaned on his belief that accelerated money printing and an increased money supply are coming to fuel his year-end Bitcoin prediction of $250,000. 

The now-pardoned BitMex founder is financially aligned with ETH’s success, adding around 1.8K ETH worth more than $8.6 million since August 10 according to wallet tracking from Arkham Intelligence. The wallet tagged as belonging to Hayes holds more than $50 million worth of ETH and staked ETH equivalents.