The Chief Investment Officer of the fund, Maelstrom, stated that U.S. policymakers may support artificial intelligence and government debt by printing money, thereby driving up the prices of cryptocurrencies.
On Tuesday, during the Korea Blockchain Week at the CONNECT Seoul event in Cointelegraph, Hayes stated that artificial intelligence companies need trillions of dollars to finance their data centers, even though the prices of their services are declining.
“They actually don’t have many options; they can only print money to make the situation less bad,” he said.
BitMEX, co-founder, Arthur Hayes, spoke at the CONNECT Seoul event in Cointelegraph.
Hayes also mentioned that China might shift from what he referred to as "mild tightening" policies to large-scale monetary stimulus, suggesting that this could revive demand for scarce assets.
“I think printing money will eventually happen, but it’s a bit like a train accident that is slowly unfolding beneath the surface of the earth,” he said.
The CONNECT event held in Seoul included multiple discussion sessions, covering topics such as traditional finance on the blockchain, stablecoins, and corporate crypto treasuries.
Wall Street leaves room for intermediaries in the blockchain sector
Portal Ventures General Partners Catrina Wang indicate that banks and asset management companies bring their existing customer base into the blockchain market, which gives them an advantage over companies that have to attract investors from scratch.
"Whoever possesses customer relationships owns economic benefits," said Wang, citing the aggregate theory of technology analyst Ben Thompson.
Portal Ventures General Partner Catrina Wang speaks during the " The New Financial Establishment " discussion session.
For financial companies, serving existing customers is just part of the opportunities. R3, co-founder Todd McDonald, stated that public blockchains also provide channels for institutions to reach customers outside their own networks.
R3 previously established a private financial network business around its Corda platform, and then in May 2025, it announced a collaboration to integrate institutions and their assets into the Solana public chain.
"You need to truly go to where the customers are, and to where they will be in the future," he said.
Once investors enter these markets, they still need to decide where to invest their money and what level of risk they are willing to undertake.
World Liberty Financial, the Vice President of Growth, and Justin Kugel stated that although cryptocurrencies were initially promised to eliminate intermediaries, these decisions have still created jobs for intermediary institutions.
“Maybe there’s a reason why there are so many intermediaries in traditional finance,” said Kugel.
He stated that many users do not wish to manage their assets on their own, nor are they willing to evaluate each investment individually; instead, they prefer the sense of protection provided by centralized exchanges.
Stablecoins are responsible for transfers, but who provides the returns?
Franklin Templeton, the Senior Vice President of Digital Asset Customer Service, and Chetan Karkhanis stated that the company has no plans to issue its own stablecoin. Instead, they aim for their tokenized money market funds to provide investment returns alongside payment tokens.
“Let’s move on to the revenue generation part,” said Karkhanis.
Karkhanis indicates that the subscription and redemption of Franklin Templeton funds usually still require fiat currency. Some conversions involving stablecoins are already available, but he stated that these options need to become more widely adopted across the industry.
Franklin Templeton announced in June a partnership with MoonPay, allowing qualified institutional investors to convert between supported stablecoins and their tokenized money market funds through on-chain transactions.
From left to right: Codex Co-founder and CEO, Haonan Li, Franklin Templeton Senior Vice President of Digital Asset Customer Service, Chetan Karkhanis, and Miden Co-founder, Azeem Khan.
The co-founder and CEO of the stablecoin foreign exchange platform Codex, Haonan Li, stated that along the trade routes connecting Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa with Asia, the demand for stablecoin payments is growing; on these routes, buyers remit funds to pay for manufactured goods being shipped in the opposite direction.
“Finished products flow from east to west, while capital flows from west to east,” said Li.
Encrypted treasuries face liquidity challenges
CONNECT Partner FinHarbor Co-founder and CEO Ilya Podoynitsyn stated that companies considering adopting an encrypted treasury strategy need to be able to invest cash over a longer period of time without interfering with their daily operations.
"If you don't have that extra liquidity available for this purpose, then you need to think very carefully before entering the market," said Podoynitsyn.
He warned that it is not advisable to copy the strategy of another company without considering differences in balance sheets, liquidity needs, and risk tolerance. He said that even experienced financial teams may lack expertise in on-chain liquidity and transaction approval.
SharpLink Chief Growth and Strategy Officer Michael Camarda spoke during the crypto treasury discussion session.
“They like headlines. They like numbers,” Camarda said when talking about retail investors.
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