2026년 2월 26일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance
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A financial crisis triggered by artificial intelligence is looming and it would send Bitcoin to a new price record, according to Maelstrom investment chief Arthur Hayes.
Hayes said in a Feb. 18 blog post that AI will trigger a financial crisis by destroying the jobs of U.S. knowledge workers. He said the crisis would force the Federal Reserve to engage in massive quantitative easing, which is widely believed to be supportive of perceived risk assets such as Bitcoin.
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Hayes ran an analysis estimating AI rendered 20% of the U.S.'s estimated 72.1 million knowledge workers jobless. He found that it would trigger $557 billion in credit and mortgage losses, a 13% equity drawdown for the banking industry. He said this drawdown was half as deadly as the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Bitcoin’s recent divergence from the Nasdaq 100 is a warning signal of the impending liquidity crunch, Hayes said, citing the asset’s historical sensitivity to liquidity. He also said some investors see the digital asset as a levered play on the Nasdaq 100.
Bitcoin has been in a steep decline since October, while the Nasdaq has largely consolidated.
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Hayes suggested that the AI-driven crisis may have already begun. He cited a Bloomberg chart based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showing that consumer debt delinquencies are at their highest point since 2017.
The equity market may already be catching on. Hayes cited the recent decline in the stock of software-as-a-service businesses and the SPDR Consumer Discretionary ETF (NYSE:XLY), as well as the rise in the stock of discount retailers such as Walmart(NASDAQ:WMT).
However, Hayes said his outlook did not discount more pain for Bitcoin in the short term. He said Bitcoin could either consolidate as the crisis hits or fall below $60,000, urging market participants to stay liquid and avoid leverage.
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Bitcoin was most recently trading just below $65,000. It is down 26% so far this year.
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