Arthur Hayes is still bullish on Bitcoin and is seeking $250 million for the Crypto Buyout Fund

Arthur Hayes, the black crypto influencer considered by many in the speculative investment community as an authoritative voice on Bitcoin and other forms of digital currencies, has remained optimistic about Bitcoin’s prospects. After the latest crash, he and his Maelstrom family office are looking to raise $250 million from private equity to acquire mid-market cryptocurrency companies.

According to Bloombergthe Maelstrom Fund plans to use between $40 million and $75 million to acquire four to six mid-sized crypto companies specializing in trading infrastructure, analytics platforms and non-token equity. This follows his prediction that Bitcoin’s four-year cycle will boom the busts will endfueled in part by the Trump administration’s investments in the technology and by several banking crises around the world.

“As the four-year anniversary of this fourth cycle approaches, traders will want to apply the historical pattern and predict an end to this bull run,” Hayes noted in an October 9 essay: arguing that the market’s bull or boom would continue.

He continued: “In the US, newly elected President Trump wants to jump-start the economy. He routinely talks about growing America to reduce its debt burden. Trump also talks about lowering the cost of housing to release trillions of dollars in trapped home equity due to the rapid rise in home prices after 2008.”

Remarkable, said CNBCHayes was was pardoned by Trump in March 2025 after he, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed previously pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. In that case, the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, which the three men founded, failed to maintain anti-money laundering and know-your-customer programs. Prosecutors in the case noted in their arguments that BitMEX was primarily operated as a “money laundering platform.”

As for the Maelstrom deals, Maelstrom co-founder and managing partner Akshat Vaidya told the outlet that this strategy avoids the pitfalls of artificially inflated valuations sometimes associated with speculative tokens by focusing on actual cash flow and not tokens.

“These types of companies are much easier to acquire. You can’t artificially inflate valuations with an unused token,” Vaidya noted.

If Coin Bureau According to reports, Vaidya and Maelstrom are aiming to close the first investment round by the end of March 2026, with the company fully funded by September 2026. Currently, Hayes and third partner, Adam Schlegel, are leading this effort and plan to build out a full management team at a later date.

In contrast to Hayes’ rosy view of Bitcoin’s future prospects, Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff recently warned on X that a “brutal” bear market for Bitcoin is approaching. He also indicated that he believes Bitcoin has thus far been a failure as both a replacement for the dollar and a form of digital gold, warning Bitcoin holders not to ignore reality in hopes of sustainable profitability. It’s no wonder, then, that Maelstrom’s leaders are trying to avoid tying their venture to the whims of speculative tokens.

If BLACK BUSINESS previously reported, contrary to what many first believed, Bitcoin and other speculative cryptocurrencies have left many Black investors in worse shape than traditional financial spaces. This is partly due to this the way black Americans interact with speculative currenciesThis is evident from a 2022 report from the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

As they note, “Studies show that Black consumers are more likely to own cryptocurrencies than white consumers… Unlike white consumers, Black consumers are more likely to own cryptocurrencies than assets such as stocks and mutual funds.”

They argue that this is concerning for a number of reasons, chief among them volatility and the lack of an equivalent to FDIC support. Despite the support of crypto assets by Black celebrities, “Cryptocurrencies are highly speculative, volatile, unregulated, and unbacked by any government. As a result, they are vulnerable to scams and wide price fluctuations, with little to no recourse for crypto owners.”

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