BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes predicts a seismic shift in global capital flows, with up to $34 trillion potentially moving from non-US bank deposits into dollar-pegged stablecoins. This thesis is built on the idea that individuals and businesses outside the US will increasingly use stablecoins as a store of value to protect against local currency devaluation and gain access to permissionless yield.

Hayes argues this massive capital influx will serve as a powerful catalyst for the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. He identifies three core protocols as primary beneficiaries, each representing a key pillar of the DeFi stack. The capital would flow into protocols like MakerDAO to earn native stablecoin yield, be traded on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, and be deployed for leverage and yield generation on decentralized perpetuals exchanges like GMX.

The prediction underscores a broader trend of stablecoins evolving from a trader-centric tool to a global savings and settlement layer. If this forecast holds, the infrastructure of DeFi would need to scale significantly, but the protocols that form the backbone of on-chain liquidity and lending would experience unprecedented growth. This signals a potential maturation of DeFi from a niche market to a foundational component of the global financial system.