Arthur Hayes slashes Bitcoin target from $500K to $125K, blaming AI's deflationary drag on global liquidity!

BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes revealed at Consensus Miami on May 15, 2026 that he has cut his Bitcoin price target from $500,000 to $125,000 — a 75% reduction that reflects a fundamental reassessment of where global fiat liquidity is headed.

Hayes framed Bitcoin as a fixed-supply asset whose ceiling is set entirely by the pace of central bank money printing. His revised thesis hinges on a structural shift: Q1's tech and SaaS stock selloff, driven by AI-related panic, signalled to him that current rounds of monetary expansion cannot offset the deflationary forces AI is unleashing — mass layoffs, compressed margins, and rising debt defaults.

The implication is that central banks will print less aggressively than Hayes previously modelled, capping the liquidity tide that Bitcoin needs to reach six-figure highs. At $125,000, the target still implies meaningful upside…