US President Donald Trump Just Added Bitcoin to the US Strategic Reserve, But Arthur Hayes Isn't Buying the Hype

US President Donald Trump just added Bitcoin to the US Strategic Reserve, but Arthur Hayes isn't buying the hype. He sees it as political posturing

US President Donald Trump just added Bitcoin to the US Strategic Reserve, but Arthur Hayes isn’t buying the hype. In an exclusive interview with Cryptopolitan, the CIO of Maelstrom and co-founder of BitMEX, sees it as political posturing and a way to woo crypto voters ahead of the 2026 midterms while doing the bare minimum to keep inflation under control.

With US-China tensions simmering and aggressive tariffs making a comeback, could Bitcoin become a weapon in the new Cold War? We asked Hayes who also thinks China might already be ahead in the BTC accumulation race.

Bitcoin becoming a mainstream asset

With Bitcoin ETFs, institutional adoption, and political backing, many are celebrating what seems like the asset’s golden era. However, Hayes sees the flip side, warning that this mainstreaming could strip BTC of its rebel DNA and turn it into just another Wall Street asset.

As we discussed in our interview, Arthur highlighted that “Bitcoin is a bearer asset with a finite supply that cannot be altered by government or central bank diktat. It is the complete opposite of any TradFi asset which, even if it is in finite supply like equities, relies on the legal fiction woven by governments and enforced by men with guns.”

We asked him if big banks would kill off stablecoin issuers like Tether or if regulators could shut down all stablecoins, bank-issued or not.

He stood firm on Tether’s survival and highlighted that Tether is too big to kill because a disorderly unwind of their hundreds of billions of dollars worth of US Treasury securities would roil the market.

“Tether is mostly used by non-Americans, US bank will issue a stablecoin in its first instance to service US persons. Therefore, Tether’s dominance will not be challenged,”

said Hayes.

Is Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve a smart move or a gimmick?

Earlier this year, we learned that Bitcoin and other top altcoins got an official call to be included in a government reserve. We asked Arthur whether this is the first step toward a Bitcoin-backed financial system or just political theater.

He pointed out that “Trump and the Republican party have a tough mid-term election coming up in 2026. Trump needs to keep crypto investors on side so they show up with campaign donations and at the ballot box.”

He added “But on the other hand, Trump can’t have inflation running wild, so wanton money printing, which would send Bitcoin quickly to new all-time highs, cannot be pursued because inflation harms all Americans. Trump will do the minimum necessary to gain the support of crypto investors.”

According to his calculations, local governments in China have been mining Bitcoin for years and might already be ahead in accumulating reserves. As he explained:

“The roughly 200,000 Bitcoin the US government seized or stole from individuals is what is going into the reserve. It is very possible that the Chinese government holds more Bitcoin than that.”

Bitcoin as a trade war weapon?

With US-China tensions simmering and the return of aggressive tariffs, Bitcoin could become a strategic tool for countries to bypass financial sanctions and tariffs. We asked Arthur if we could see governments weaponizing BTC in global trade.

According to him, Bitcoin is becoming a key tool for economic resistance.

“Bitcoin will become the only way that balkanized economic blocs can be financially connected. In the near future, the major economic blocs will begin blocking the ability for capital to flow freely outside of their borders. At that point, Bitcoin, given that anyone with an internet connection can use it, will be the only way that citizens from different blocs can financially interact with each other,” he added.

If global supply chains get disrupted again due to tariffs and economic nationalism, could that push businesses and individuals toward Bitcoin as a borderless asset?

Maelstrom CIO suggested that “the balkanization of trade and finance is inflationary as every country must replicate production. The increase in productive capacity cannot be funded out of savings alone; therefore, fiat money printing will be used to finance this build out.”

“Bitcoin benefits as the amount of global fiat credit expands. That is how Bitcoin benefits in a global trade war,” he further added.

We’ve seen El Salvador going big on BTC, but they’re small. Which major nation do you think will be the first to shift a major part of their reserves into Bitcoin?

Despite El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment, Hayes doubts any major economy will make Bitcoin its primary reserve asset. “It doesn’t make any sense for a government to ditch the privilege of issuing its own currency by fiat.”

Are meme coins the real central bank killers?

Forget BTC and ETH, meme coins are moving faster and generating more liquidity than some national currencies. In the meantime, we’ve also seen more scams and hacks in the shadow of the meme coins explosion.

Would it be possible to see a future where such coins disrupt fiat