Arthur Hayes: Crypto Is a Retail Story, Not an Institutional One — Emerging Markets Are the Real Driver

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes at Inside the Blockchain 100 said crypto's fundamental growth story is driven by retail users in emerging markets, not Western institutional investors. Hayes argued that much of the ETF and flow activity attributed to institutional adoption is in fact hedge funds running basis trades, unrelated to genuine crypto adoption. He said people in countries with broken financial systems — unable to access reliable banking, credit, or cross-border payments — are the primary beneficiaries of crypto and stablecoins such as Tether, which he uses personally across emerging markets. Hayes said tracking what these retail users need is more consequential than monitoring BlackRock's positioning.