On January 6, Arthur Hayes wrote in his latest article *Suavemente* that U.S. efforts to control Venezuelan oil will ultimately spark economic stimulus via “massive money printing” to cap oil prices — pushing Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies sharply higher. Hayes noted the Trump administration needs to juice the economy (grow nominal GDP) and tame inflation — especially gas prices — to win the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election. Controlling Venezuelan oil is key to boosting supply and lowering prices to win over voters. Meanwhile, to stimulate growth, the administration will need to coordinate with the Fed on large-scale deficit spending and credit expansion (aka “money printing”). In an ideal scenario, if the administration pulls off “economic heat + low oil prices,” the money printer will run at full tilt. The flood of excess U.S. dollar liquidity will pour into assets across the board. As hard assets hedging against fiat devaluation and liquidity gluts, Bitcoin and top cryptocurrencies will be among the biggest winners — driving their prices sharply higher. Hayes says he believes ZEC will emerge as the beta play in the privacy sector. His family office, Maelstrom, already took a large long position in ZEC at an attractive price in Q3 2025. The Maelstrom team is focused on the privacy theme, targeting at least one “shitcoin” that can lead the trend and deliver outsized returns for its portfolio in the years ahead. As of 2026, Maelstrom is operating with nearly maximum risk exposure. While the team will keep deploying idle cash from various financing deals into Bitcoin, its current USD stablecoin holdings are minimal. To beat BTC and ETH returns, Maelstrom plans to sell BTC to fund its privacy sector positions and sell ETH to fund its DeFi plays. If the team picks right, those “shitcoins” should outperform the broader market as fiat credit expands.
