Arthur Hayes Predicts Ethereum Will Reach $10K by Year-End

Ethereum gained nearly 70% in Q3 after two losing quarters, giving Hayes' year-end call a stronger backdrop than in the first half of 2026. Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, told an interviewer at KBW 2026 in Seoul that he expects to see Ethereum hit $10,000 by the end of the year. That’s more than three times the current price near $2,700, with ETH still trading about 46% below its all-time high. The $10K Case for Ethereum In a clip CoinDesk posted on X from the KBW2026 event, Hayes gave a direct answer when asked for his Ethereum price prediction: “$10,000 by the end of the year.” He added that he likes ETH because he can put a large amount of money into it without expecting a sudden 75% loss from an exploit. Hayes also addressed why Ethereum has lagged other networks at different points of the cycle, putting it all down to narratives. He pointed to Solana capturing the meme coin narrative and rising quickly, while Ethereum had become slower as competing blockchains took some of the activity. “Obviously, Ethereum pioneered this whole decentralized computer thing and then was the victim of its own success, was slow and whatever,” he said. “And there were other challengers th...