Arthur Hayes Reveals His 2026 Expectations! “I Might Sell Bitcoin and Ethereum and Buy Altcoins!” He Said, and Named Four Altcoins!

Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX and one of the most prominent figures in the market with his bold statements, has made remarkable predictions regarding the year 2026.

In his new blog post, Hayes stated that 2026 will be marked by the US midterm elections and oil prices.

Hayes stated that privacy-focused altcoins and DeFi projects will come to the forefront in the cryptocurrency market, pointing to altcoins such as Zcash (ZEC), HYPE, PENDLE, and ETHFI.

Hayes stated that the US midterm elections to be held at the end of 2026 are of critical importance for Donald Trump, and emphasized that the Democrats have a chance of winning back the House of Representatives.

Hayes stated that there is always a dominant theme in the cryptocurrency market, and argued that the main theme of 2026 will be privacy.

Hayes, arguing that ZEC will come to the forefront at this point, said, “In the coming period, the dominant story in crypto will be privacy. The most important altcoin of this theme will be ZEC. We still have a large long position in ZEC. We are also looking for smaller, riskier, and more explosive projects.”

Hayes stated that his company, Maelstrom, made significant profits from investments in Bitcoin, as well as HYPE, PENDLE, and ETHFI in the past year 2025, and that they are still investing in these projects.

However, Hayes, who also admitted to suffering significant losses in memecoin investments, said the following:

“Our biggest mistake was in the PUMP transactions. I really need to stay away from Memecoins, I burned too much PNL.”

“I only made money from a single TRUMP coin. At this point, only 33% of my memecoin trades ended in profit. HYPE, BTC, PENDLE, and ETHFI, on the other hand, were cryptocurrencies with a story and liquidity. That’s why they were profitable.”

Hayes concluded by stating that he and his company are entering 2026 with maximum risk, and that significant changes will be made to the portfolio.

“If there is credit expansion along with the FED, we have made choices that will yield higher returns than Bitcoin and Ethereum. We will sell Bitcoin and buy privacy coins, and sell Ethereum and buy DeFi coins. However, if oil prices rise and the FED pauses interest rate cuts, we will sell and return to Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

*This is not investment advice.