Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, says governments will print money to fund Artificial Intelligence and wartime economies, while NEAR Protocol (CRYPTO: NEAR), Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) and Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE) are likely to become core trades in the next crypto cycle.

Crypto Bull Market Underway

In an interview with The Rollup, Hayes said the next crypto bull market is already underway, driven by a liquidity boom tied to AI capex and renewed demand for financial privacy.

Hayes argues governments in the U.S., China and Europe will keep printing money to fund AI infrastructure and national defense, with that liquidity leaking into Bitcoin and select crypto assets.

His strongest crypto themes are:

  • Zcash: Hayes sees it as the core privacy trade as users seek shielded money in an AI and surveillance-heavy world.
  • NEAR Protocol: He says NEAR could benefit from confidential intents, cross-chain private transfers and AI-agent commerce.
  • Hyperliquid: Hayes calls it one of crypto's strongest exchange plays, citing real revenue, strong tokenomics and growing demand for decentralized trading.

Crypto Moving Back To Fundamentals

NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin said crypto is moving back toward fundamentals: revenue, users, real products and token economics.

He said blockspace has become a commodity, while privacy and AI-powered agents could drive the next wave of adoption.

Illia said NEAR Protocol aims to become deflationary as revenue grows and token inflation is gradually reduced.

He argued the crypto industry has historically "overpaid" for economic security through excessive inflation and said governance reforms are being developed to help the community lower emissions over time.

He added that NEAR is also exploring alternative validator and security funding mechanisms beyond traditional token inflation.

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