BlockBeats news, January 6, Arthur Hayes stated in his latest article (Suavemente) that the actions taken by the United States to control Venezuelan oil will ultimately lead to economic stimulation through 'massive money printing' and suppress oil prices, which will result in a significant increase in the price of cryptocurrencies led by Bitcoin.

Hayes explained that the Trump administration must boost the economy (raise nominal GDP) and control inflation, especially gas prices, in order to win the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election. Controlling Venezuelan oil is aimed at increasing supply and lowering oil prices to appease voters. At the same time, to stimulate the economy, the government will have to cooperate with the Federal Reserve, engaging in massive deficit spending and credit expansion (i.e., 'money printing').

Ideally, if the 'economic boom + low oil prices' is successfully achieved, then the money printing machine will operate at full speed, and the excessive dollar liquidity will flood into various assets. As a 'hard asset' against the depreciation of fiat currency and the oversupply of liquidity, Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies will become one of the biggest beneficiaries, and their prices will soar as a result.

Hayes stated that he believes ZEC will become the beta of the privacy sector, with his family office Maelstrom having already gone long on a large amount of ZEC at an excellent price in the third quarter of 2025. The focus of the Maelstrom team is to find at least one altcoin under the theme of privacy that can lead the trend and bring excess returns to their portfolio in the coming years.

Currently, Maelstrom is entering 2026 with nearly maximum risk exposure. While the team will continue to put idle cash generated from various financing deals into Bitcoin, the current position in dollar stablecoins is very low. To achieve excess returns relative to BTC and ETH, the team will sell BTC to fund the privacy position and sell ETH to fund the DeFi position. In both cases, if the choices are made correctly, the selected altcoins should outperform the market as fiat credit expands.