Arthur Hayes Says Crypto Market Should Brace for Downward Impact

BitMEX Co-founder Arthur Hayes, predicts that the crypto market can expect more BTC price swings as Bitcoin’s price dropped below $80,000, its lowest point in over three months. The decline follows mounting uncertainty surrounding proposed trade tariffs, a factor that has significantly impacted market sentiment.

Hayes, in a recent statement on X, expressed his observation of the ongoing downward trend and his prediction for further decline.

We are making lower lows in this current wave. I was tempted to add risk this morning, but looking at this price action I think we have one more violent wave down below $80k, most likely over the weekend, then crickets for a while. Hold on to your butts! pic.twitter.com/e6nshZejAb

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) February 28, 2025

Crypto Market Liquidation

In the past 24 hours, over $730 million worth of cryptocurrencies were sold off, with Bitcoin bearing the brunt of the losses. This caused Bitcoin’s price to fall below $80,000 for the first time since November 2024. Other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin also dropped about 8%, reflecting a wider market downturn. Overall, Bitcoin and other digital assets have lost 20-25% of their value this week.

In just one month, the total value of the crypto market plummeted by over $900 billion, falling from $3.7 trillion to $2.8 trillion. Bitcoin’s price dropped more than 21% in February, after failing to stay above $106,000 and then $95,000.

According to Arthur Hayes, the market could experience another major drop before the week runs out. At the time of writing, Bitcoin hit a low of about $78,943 according to CoinGecko data.

CoinGlass data reveals that over $99 million in Bitcoin long positions liquidated in the past 24 hours. This means investors betting on price increases lost money, compared to approximately $5.62 million in short positions. Bitcoin liquidations totaled roughly $365 million, with $322 million from long positions, a level not seen since November 11th, 2024.

BTC Price Action

Bitcoin trading volume plummeted 78.2% on February 28th, 2025, reaching $72 billion. This sharp drop shows a significant slowdown in market activity. However, Bitcoin remains the leading cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $1 trillion based on the 20 million BTC currently in circulation.

While the fully diluted valuation (FDV) is also $1 trillion—a hypothetical maximum if all 21 million BTC were in circulation—this figure is far from guaranteed and depends on the Bitcoin emission schedule, which will take years to complete.

Bitcoin’s performance worsened over the past week, falling 19.6%, underperforming the overall crypto market’s 16.6% drop. This reflects a negative market trend for Bitcoin.