Hayes Maintains BTC Long, Predicts ETH at $10,000 by 2026

Arthur Hayes confirmed that his family office Maelstrom has kept its crypto allocation steady, with a structural long position in Bitcoin (BTC). Additionally, he has established a $10,000 target price for Ether (ETH) to be reached by the close of 2026.

In a September 3 newsletter that focused on euro-yen macroeconomic trends, the BitMEX co-founder issued these forecasts. He also assigned comparable year-end price goals to Ethena (ENA) and Ether.fi (ETHFI).

Hayes’ Ether Price Target and Other Calls

Arthur Hayes serves as chief investment officer for Maelstrom, the family office he operates following his tenure as co-founder and former chief of BitMEX. The fund invests in both well-established cryptocurrencies and earlier-stage tokens. Hayes presents his portfolio opinions as digressions within lengthy macro essays on his newsletter, not as separate declarations.

As a widely followed figure in crypto trading, Hayes’ price predictions frequently influence market discussions. The specific newsletter did not provide a valuation model to support any of the three altcoin targets.

Hayes described his Bitcoin long as structural, without attaching a specific price target. He characterized the ETH, ENA, and ETHFI targets as more speculative. Those figures stand at $10,000 for ETH, $0.50 for ENA, and $2 for ETHFI.

A Long Way to Go for ETH

At the time of publication, Ether was trading near $2,379 per token. This means Hayes’ target represents an increase of approximately 320% from the current price.

ENA was priced at $0.159, while ETHFI stood at $0.562, both well under his targets. Bitcoin was trading around $77,258.

The central thesis of the newsletter centered on the euro depreciating relative to the yen. This argument connects stress in French banks and Bank of Japan policies to accelerated money printing by the Federal Reserve. Hayes ties that perspective to his wider assertion that Bessent’s buyback playbook will increase dollar liquidity.

This year, Hayes has also been actively purchasing ETHFI. He re-entered the ETHFI position in August after having sold out of it earlier in 2026.