Ethereum could retest $4,000 if Powell turns hawkish at Jackson Hole: Arthur Hayes

Ethereum may retest the $4,000 mark if Fed Chair Jerome Powell sound hawkish at Jackson Hole, according to Arthur Hayes, ex-CEO of BitMEX. Powell is set to speak at 10 a.m. ET on Friday.

“I think that we could maybe test 4,000 if, you know, there’s a very hawkish statement from Powell at the Jackson Hole on Friday,” said Hayes in a recent interview with Crypto Banter.

Ethereum was trading at $4,297 at press time, down 6% over the past week, per TradingView. The token recently topped $4,700, its highest level since November 2021.

Hayes remains bullish about Ethereum’s long-term prospects, projecting prices between $10,000 and $20,000 by the end of the current market cycle.

“Once it’s broken through, then, you know, there’s a gap of error to the upside,” he said.

The crypto executive pointed to digital asset treasury companies as potential catalysts for price appreciation.

“You have obviously all these digital asset treasury companies who are just raising money, and it’s gonna be even easier to raise money if the asset that they’re buying has just broken through its all-time high,” Hayes said.

Regarding market dynamics, Hayes said the real driver will be US politics and fiscal expansion, rather than the usual four-year cycle.

He believes the Trump administration is still experimenting with different ways to inject liquidity into the system, but expects that by mid-2026, once the question of Powell’s fate at the Fed is resolved, money printing will go into overdrive heading into the 2026 midterms and the 2028 election.

“You cannot win an election without printing money, and the Democrats are going to print money. And so he has to print money,” he said. “If he doesn’t hand out the goodies, then all his boys are not getting reelected.”