Arthur Hayes: "Bitcoin Could Reach $1 Million in 10 Years"... Here's Why

BitMEX Co-Founder

"Vast Capital Is Being Poured Into AI Infrastructure"

Extremely Low Profitability

"The Most Inefficient Capital Allocation Since the 19th Century Railroad Boom"

An industry expert has predicted that the price of Bitcoin could rise to $1 million (approximately 1.355 billion won) within the next ten years. He cited an impending financial crisis caused by an excessive influx of capital into the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and argued that massive liquidity measures taken to address this crisis would drive up the price of Bitcoin.

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the crypto-focused investment fund Maelstrom, made these remarks at Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2026, held at the Walkerhill Hotel & Resort in Seoul on September 30. "There is an excess of investment in the AI sector," he stated.

Earlier this month, Hayes had already said that the conditions are set for Bitcoin to surge to $1 million within the next four years. When asked about the influence of AI investment funds on the price of Bitcoin and the rationale behind his $1 million price outlook, he explained, "The $1 million figure is an aspirational target that is meant to inspire. While I cannot say with certainty what the actual probability of achieving this is, I have based my projection on a ten-year timeframe."

He went on to warn that the current wave of AI investment is yielding extremely low returns and could trigger a massive bailout. Hayes said, "The AI infrastructure expansion led by the United States is reminiscent of the inefficient allocation of capital seen during the 19th-century railroad boom." He pointed to Anthropic's performance last year as an example, stating that it took $2 in spending to generate just $1 in revenue, highlighting the AI ecosystem's structural unprofitability. Hayes added that once the AI ecosystem—which wastes enormous amounts of capital—reaches its limit, governments will inevitably have to roll out bailouts even greater in scale than those seen during the 2008 global financial crisis.

On the 30th, at the Walkerhill Hotel & Resort in Seoul, Arthur Hayes, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the crypto asset-focused investment fund Maelstrom, spoke during a press conference at Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2026.

Hayes noted that the liquidity injections undertaken by governments during the 2008 financial crisis led to the birth of Bitcoin and boosted its price to current levels. As such, he anticipates that the bailouts triggered by the waste of AI capital will flood the market with massive liquidity. Hayes argues that this liquidity is what will drive up Bitcoin's price ten years from now.

Meanwhile, Hayes announced plans to create a new payment method linked to computing resources through the "Flop Network." The Flop token is a decentralized token inspired by the idea that existing fiat currencies, centralized stablecoins, and Bitcoin cannot be directly converted into computing resources. The Flop Network is designed as a payment network where AI agents can trade directly for computing power. By applying Bitcoin's proof-of-work mechanism to the agent ecosystem, anyone can provide their graphic processing unit (GPU) to contribute to AI inference tasks and receive Flop tokens as compensation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.