Arthur Hayes: Ethereum (ETH), A “Double Digit S*hitcoin”

In late-August of this year, Arthur Hayes, the chief executive at BitMEX, the world’s foremost crypto mercantile exchange, took to his firm’s in-house blog to tout some controversial sentiment. In an extensive post, the former institutional trader began his Ethereum (ETH) bash by telling a personal story, hyperbolized to convey a point.

The BitMEX CEO discussed a s*hitcoin named Pepe Cash, an evident combination of a popular internet meme and Bitcoin Cash, and somehow, someway, related it back to Ethereum, which Hayes evidently holds a grudge against. Hayes, imbuing the op-ed with his normal swagger — unfiltered statements, crazy calls, and all — even noted that ETH could “go from a 3-digit to a 2-digit s*hitcoin.”

Backing his statement, which was inflammatory to put it lightly, Hayes drew attention to ICO-funded projects, many of which based their operations around Ethereum, venture capitalists “turned-hedge-fund-punters,” and crypto-centric funds.

Hayes’ chastising of Ether was quite extensive, but the long and the short of it is Hayes believed that there was enough prospective selling pressure to push the asset below $100, which was situated at $200 at BitMEX’s time of press.

While many proponents of Ethereum and “altcoin maximalists” laughed at the industry savant for his sentiment, lambasting the prediction (of sorts) as foolhardy, on Thursday, the asset finally showed signs of falling to double-digits.

At first, during the wee hours of Thursday morning, ETH suddenly flash crashed to $13 on Coinbase Pro — straight out of left field.

Ethereum flashcrashed on Coinbase… …AGAIN!!! What a shitshow ETH & Coinbase are! 😂 pic.twitter.com/7wB4PZpt7H — Kevin Pham (@_Kevin_Pham) December 6, 2018

Although this move wasn’t backed by a clear catalyst, nor did Coinbase recently a statement on the matter, a number of Ether’s skeptics took to Twitter to claim that the asset’s time was up. Decentralist Kevin Pham, a zealous Bitcoin maximalist and anti-ETH fanatic, took to his Twitter following to claim that both the asset and Coinbase were a “s*hitshow.”

Others also chimed in, with Justin Sun of Tron even telling developers to “plz leave Ethereum and join Tron.” NVK, a pseudonymous crypto commentator, also expressed his/her thoughts, noting that at its core, the aforementioned project is “centralized,” before asking his followers to use Bitcoin and its recently-established Liquid Network to issue tokens.

While ETH subsequently recovered to $100, with those who bought in at the bottom making 770% near-instantly, the asset continued lower on Thursday, following BTC as it slid below $3,500. Eventually, the asset fell under $100, after putting up a fight at that key psychological, technical, and fundamental level for hours on end. As BTC continues to stumble, recently moving under $3,350 in a seemingly endless downtrend, ETH has followed suit, moving to $98 before finding itself rapidly falling to $88, where it has found itself.

So for the second time in weeks, it seems that Arthur Hayes has made a successful prediction against crypto, as the member of BitMEX’s top brass called for BTC to move under $5,000 previously.

Keeping all this tumult in mind, a number of analysts and market commentators took to Twitter to tout their thoughts. Alex Kruger, a prominent crypto-friendly macro markets analyst/investor, posted the photo above, evidently summing up Ether holders’ sentiment in a simple image.

Ethereum Believers Maintain Faith

Although the sentiment touted by traders is undoubtedly bearish, a number of diehard believers in this “world computer” project have maintained their bullish sentiment. Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, recently took to Blockshow Asia to claim that Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum all have staying power, due to their status as established networks with purportedly bonafide use cases.

Mihailo Bjelic, a blockchain researcher, took to Twitter to claim that while ConsenSys, an Ethereum development consortium recently downsized, it remains a booming project.

So what you’re also saying is that even after the sell off, Ethereum is still up 1,000% in two years. Hodlers are crying all the way to the bank… although they don’t need banks anymore, either. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) December 6, 2018

ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, responding to criticism regarding ETH from Peter Schiff, a Bitcoin hater, joked that “[Ether] HODLers are crying all the way to the bank… although they don’t need banks anymore, either.”

Title Image Courtesy of Pedro Gabriel Miziara on Unsplash