Arthur Hayes said a new wave of money creation by US policymakers could eventually support cryptocurrency prices, while speakers at Cointelegraph’s CONNECT: Seoul Edition examined how banks, asset managers and crypto companies are adapting to blockchain-based markets.
Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom fund, made the comments during a fireside chat held in Seoul during Korea Blockchain Week. He argued that the financing needs of artificial-intelligence companies and the US government’s debt burden could leave policymakers with limited alternatives beyond expanding the money supply.
AI companies need trillions of dollars to build data centers, Hayes said, even as the prices of the services they provide are declining. In his view, creating more money could make those financial pressures less severe and could raise the value of scarce assets, including cryptocurrencies.
Hayes also pointed to China, saying he was watching for a possible move away from what he described as an “austerity lite” approach toward more substantial monetary stimulus. Such a change, he said, could revive demand for assets with limited supply. In Europe, he said he was monitoring financial stress in France, including credit-default swaps linked to BNP Paribas and spreads between French government bonds.
“I think the money printing will essentially happen at some point,” Hayes said, describing it as a slow-moving problem beneath the surface. His comments were a view about possible policy developments, rather than an announcement of a new measure by any government.
According to Cointelegraph, the Seoul event also featured discussions about traditional finance moving onto public blockchains, stablecoin payments and the way companies manage crypto holdings on their balance sheets.
Wall Street brings customers to blockchain markets
Financial institutions may have an advantage as they enter blockchain markets because they already control relationships with large customer groups, said Catrina Wang, general partner at Portal Ventures. Companies starting without those relationships must first attract users and investors before they can build a comparable business.
“Whoever owns the customer relationship owns the economics,” Wang said, referring to the idea that control of distribution and users can determine where value accumulates in a technology market.
The opportunity may extend beyond the institutions’ existing clients. Todd McDonald, co-founder of R3, said public blockchains can help financial firms reach customers outside their established networks. R3 initially focused on private financial networks through its Corda platform, before announcing a collaboration in May 2025 to connect institutions and their assets to Solana’s public blockchain.
The shift to onchain markets does not necessarily remove intermediaries. Justin Kugel, executive vice president of growth at World Liberty Financial, said users still need help deciding how to allocate capital and how much risk to accept. Many people do not want to manage assets themselves or evaluate every investment, he said, and may prefer the protection they associate with centralized exchanges.
That continued demand for assistance suggests that blockchain technology may change the role of intermediaries rather than eliminate them entirely.
Stablecoins handle payments while funds provide yield
Franklin Templeton does not plan to issue its own stablecoin, according to Chetan Karkhanis, the firm’s senior vice president of digital asset client engagement. Instead, the asset manager wants its tokenized money market funds to act as a source of investment income alongside payment-focused stablecoins.
A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a relatively stable value, commonly for use in payments or transfers. Tokenized money market funds, by contrast, represent interests in investment funds on a blockchain and can provide returns from the underlying assets.
“Let us be the yield layer,” Karkhanis said. He added that subscriptions and redemptions for Franklin Templeton’s funds generally still require fiat currency, although some stablecoin conversions are already possible. He said those capabilities need to become more broadly available across the industry.
A partnership announced by Franklin Templeton and MoonPay in June allows eligible institutional investors to move between supported stablecoins and the firm’s tokenized money market funds through onchain transactions.
Haonan Li, co-founder and chief executive of stablecoin foreign-exchange platform Codex, said payment demand is increasing along trade routes connecting Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa with Asia. Buyers in those regions send funds to pay for manufactured goods moving in the opposite direction: goods travel from east to west, while money moves from west to east.
Crypto treasuries weigh liquidity and shareholder value
Companies considering a crypto treasury strategy need surplus cash that can remain committed for an extended period without affecting normal operations, said Ilya Podoynitsyn, co-founder and chief executive of FinHarbor.
He cautioned companies against copying another business’s approach without considering differences in balance sheets, liquidity needs and tolerance for risk. Even finance teams with significant experience may not have the expertise required for onchain liquidity management and transaction approvals, he said.
The discussion also examined a decision facing listed treasury companies with spare cash: whether to buy more cryptocurrency or repurchase shares trading below net asset value.
Michael Camarda, chief development officer at Ethereum treasury company SharpLink, said both actions can increase the amount of Ether represented by each remaining share. A buyback reduces the number of shares over which existing Ether holdings are distributed, while an Ether purchase increases the company’s holdings.
Camarda said SharpLink’s institutional investors focused on ETH holdings per share and therefore found buybacks more suited to their objectives. Retail investors, he said, were more responsive to announcements involving large Ether purchases. SharpLink had used both approaches, he added.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data recorded on October 3, 2026, at the times shown below, presented mixed performance among the listed assets:
- Monad (MON): $0.0314288725, down 7.52% over 24 hours but up 18.57% over seven days, as of 09:14 +03:30.
- Compound (COMP): $24.669095561, up 0.75% over 24 hours and 3.17% over seven days, as of 09:13 +03:30.
- Cap (CAP): $0.0717128383, up 6.86% over 24 hours and 39.13% over seven days, as of 09:14 +03:30.
- edgeX (EDGE): $0.4787818542, down 5% over 24 hours and 18.76% over seven days, as of 09:13 +03:30.
These figures are Moneyiar market data at the stated times and cover only the assets listed above.
