Quick Take
  • Arthur Hayes says share unlocks will dilute SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI stock after listing.
  • That could choke artificial intelligence (AI) credit and shrink the bank balance sheets he credits for crypto’s August rebound.
  • Hayes argues Bitcoin (BTC) holders feel it through dollar liquidity, with banks, not the Federal Reserve, creating credit.
  • However, he concedes the latest weekly dip in bank balance sheets is a single data point.

What Happened

The newsletter says Maelstrom advises Genlayer, an AI project preparing a token launch. It also names Flop Network, an unlaunched blockchain for AI compute, as a beneficiary.

Market Context

Hayes argues Bitcoin (BTC) holders feel it through dollar liquidity, with banks, not the Federal Reserve, creating credit. However, he concedes the latest weekly dip in bank balance sheets is a single data point.

Therefore, weaker share prices would raise borrowing costs for the labs, he argues, because debt buyers follow equity signals.

Anthropic faces 83% dilution by June 2027 after its planned initial public offering (IPO), he estimates. At a $1.5 trillion valuation, holding the price flat would take roughly $1.245 trillion in new capital, he calculates.

In contrast, Real Vision chief executive Raoul Pal rejects the debt concern. He says hyperscaler debt equals about 3.5% of those companies’ market value.

Anthropic’s listing will test whether AI financing and crypto liquidity keep drawing on the same banks.

The post Arthur Hayes: Can AI IPO Dilution Choke Bank Liquidity and Hit Bitcoin? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Why It Matters

Arthur Hayes says share unlocks will dilute SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI stock after listing. That could choke artificial intelligence (AI) credit and shrink the bank balance sheets he credits for crypto’s August rebound.

Hayes expects a credit scare to force central banks to print money, which he sees favoring Bitcoin. He urges patience.

Details

Why Do Bank Balance Sheets Link AI Stocks to Crypto?

Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder who runs family office Maelstrom, laid out the thesis in a Nov. 5 newsletter. It follows his earlier balance sheet warning on Bitcoin.

He says banks fund AI through loans, margin financing for stock traders, and purchases for their own books.

He says SpaceX’s tradable shares have grown 50% since listing while the stock stalled.

Meanwhile, the company’s amended IPO filing showed a $567 million third-quarter operating loss. Adjusted operating income, which excludes stock-based pay and donation charges, stayed positive at $2.46 billion.

Is Arthur Hayes Early on the AI Bailout Trade?

Still, hyperscalers, the cloud giants building AI data centers, are a different group from the three labs Hayes targets.

Last month, Hayes liquidated roughly $22.28 million in crypto and said he would watch from the sidelines.