BitMEX Co-Founder Has Grim Warning On Blackrock's Crypto Entry, But Predicts Bitcoin Will Reach $1M

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX, has a warning for the crypto industry on BlackRock's entry into the space, but predicts Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization, will trade at $1 million by 2026.

BlackRock, the New York-based mega investment company, is poised to enter the cryptocurrency space via its spot Bitcoin ETF application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

But Hayes, in an interview with YouTuber Tom Bilyeu, said BlackRock's entry into the industry could "fundamentally change" Bitcoin.

Though he acknowledged that the spot Bitcoin ETF approval might bring a stream of funds into the crypto market, the BitMEX co-founder was concerned about its potential influence on traditional finance.

"Will so much value and currency be owned by these centralized asset managers, who are essentially arms of the TradFi (traditional finance) ecosystem, that the underlying fundamentals of what Bitcoin is – the privacy – will those be altered? Will a BlackRock support through, maybe ownership and large mining companies, different sorts of improvement protocols... detract from the immutability of the money, or the censorship resistance or the decentralization," Hayes asked.

BlackRock is awaiting the SEC's approval of its application after the financial regulator delayed its decision on several filings, including BlackRock's last month.

Despite Hayes' gloomy outlook on BlackRock's entry into the crypto space, he remains optimistic about Bitcoin. The BitMEX co-founder predicted that the "king of crypto" will trade between $750,000 and $1 million by the end of 2026.

Hayes noted that as soon as Bitcoin recovers its past peaks by the end of next year, the "real fun starts and the real bull market starts and Bitcoin enters the $750,000 to $1 million on the upside."

BTC was trading down at $27,261.64 as of 6:30 a.m. ET Wednesday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 12.24% at $14.88 billion, which represents a 1.49% drop in the last 24 hours and a 1.2% loss over the past seven days.

Bitcoin's total circulating supply stands at 19.51 million coins, with its value down by 1.49% to a $532.16 billion market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.