HYPE to $150? Arthur Hayes Breaks Down His Bull Case

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  March 13, 2026 at 14:51  |  12:41  |  CoinDesk
Speakers

Summary

  • Hyperliquid (HYPE) is outperforming competitors due to genuine trading volume, high liquidity, and a team policy of minimal token unlocks.
  • Arthur Hayes predicts HYPE could reach $150 by August 2026 if it returns to a $1.4 billion annualized revenue run rate and experiences PE multiple expansion.
  • The privacy narrative in crypto is expected to heat up due to AI and government surveillance, making Zcash (ZEC) a strong buy.
  • Hayes maintains a highly optimistic $250,000 price target for Bitcoin (BTC) by the end of the year.
Trade Ideas
Arthur Hayes CIO, Maelstrom 9:18
"I think we need to return to an annualized revenue run rate of about 1.4 billion... right now, they're doing about 1% of what they're allowed to claim is what they're actually sort of vesting to themselves." Hyperliquid has the lowest ratio of reported volume to open interest, indicating genuine trading activity rather than wash trading. Combined with the team restricting their own token unlocks, this creates strong fundamental value. If revenue recovers, the price-to-earnings ratio could expand from 12 to 30, driving significant price appreciation. LONG HYPE based on superior platform liquidity, real user revenue, and favorable tokenomics driving a $150 price target. Increased competition from low-to-no fee perpdexes or a change in the team's token unlock policy leading to dilution.
HYPE
Arthur Hayes CIO, Maelstrom 10:18
"The privacy narrative is only starting to heat up, especially as we start to see how easy it is for people to deanonymize Bitcoin and other crypto transactions when you have AI agents compared with big data sets, big tech, and big government." As surveillance capabilities increase, crypto users will increasingly seek out robust on-chain privacy solutions. Zcash, being built on the Bitcoin codebase with proven cryptographic anonymity and no trusted setup, is perfectly positioned to capture this demand as privacy becomes a premium feature. LONG ZEC as a structural play on the growing necessity for financial privacy in the digital age. Regulatory crackdowns on privacy coins or potential delistings from centralized exchanges.
ZEC
Arthur Hayes CIO, Maelstrom 11:52
"For this year, I'm going to just go with the same number. $250,000 Bitcoin." Despite missing previous aggressive price targets, the underlying conviction remains that macroeconomic conditions, fiat debasement, and continued adoption will drive massive capital inflows into the premier digital asset. LONG BTC as a high-conviction, albeit highly optimistic, macro trade. Failure to meet aggressive price targets could lead to narrative exhaustion, or unforeseen macroeconomic tightening could suppress risk assets.
BTC
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This CoinDesk video, published March 13, 2026, features Arthur Hayes discussing HYPE, ZEC, BTC. 3 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Arthur Hayes  · Tickers: HYPE, ZEC, BTC