After setting a new historical peak last Friday, Ethereum may still have long-term growth potential. Specifically, Arthur Hayes – the founder of BitMEX – has once again raised his price target for Ethereum. This time, he believes that the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market could soar to 10,000 USD, even 20,000 USD before the bullish cycle ends.
Hayes shared this prediction on the Crypto Banter podcast, just before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole. According to him, the bullish outlook for ETH is linked to the expectation that President Donald Trump's administration will ramp up "money printing" during his term.
"I think ETH will rise to 10,000 or 20,000 USD before this cycle closes. Once the price breaks the old peak, there are almost no barriers above. At that point, digital asset treasury management companies will find it much easier to raise funds, as the assets they hold not only exceed historical highs but are also continuing to rise."
Ethereum continued to rise sharply on Friday, approaching the historical peak after Powell adopted a more dovish tone, hinting at the possibility of interest rate cuts. The price of ETH reached a new peak of 4,789 USD, surpassing the record from 2021.
This upward momentum partly comes from the influx of funds from the digital asset treasury funds that Hayes mentioned, especially BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming – the two largest ETH treasuries at the moment, holding a total of over 10 billion USD in ETH. Additionally, Ethereum ETF funds also play an important role with record capital inflows in July, currently holding over 5% of the total ETH supply.
In recent months, Hayes has consistently maintained an optimistic view on ETH. In May, he shared that he expected ETH to reach 4,000–5,000 USD by the end of the year. By July, he revised his forecast, claiming that ETH would "tear through the market" and aim for 10,000 USD, emphasizing that this is one of the most "hated" assets.
Now, he continues to emphasize the possibility that ETH could aim for 20,000 USD by the end of the bullish cycle, partly thanks to the vast amount of money that the Trump administration is expected to unleash.
In other words, Hayes predicts that the Trump administration will implement a quantitative easing policy – that is, creating new money to buy financial assets.
"From mid-2026 until Trump leaves office, they will print money like crazy. In my opinion, the main scenario is that the market will witness a massive price increase, spread across all types of financial assets linked to the sectors that Trump values, throughout his time in office."
Previously, Hayes had also relied on the argument of accelerating money printing and expanding the money supply to predict that Bitcoin would reach 250,000 USD by the end of the year.
Additionally, Hayes' financial interests are also linked to ETH. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, since August 10, his wallet has purchased about 1,800 ETH worth over 8.6 million USD. In total, wallets labeled as belonging to Hayes currently hold more than 50 million USD in ETH and equivalent forms of ETH staking.