Arthur Hayes: US "colonization" of Venezuela will drive a surge in Bitcoin prices.

In his latest long article, *Suavemente*, Arthur Hayes argues that the US's geopolitical actions of "detaining" Maduro and effectively controlling Venezuela's oil resources are aimed at lowering oil prices, curbing inflation, and providing President Trump with room for continued loose monetary and fiscal expansion, thereby maintaining voter support in the midterm elections. He believes that in an environment of "money printing stimulus + controlled energy prices," rising nominal GDP will push up risk assets, especially inflation-hedging assets like Bitcoin. He explicitly states that the current strategy should be to "go long on BTC and high-quality crypto assets," and that Maelstrom is almost fully invested for 2026, favoring privacy narratives (such as ZEC) as the next major theme.