Billionaire Arthur Hayes Claims Average Crypto User Prioritizes Ease of Use Over Decentralization – What Does This Mean for the Industry?

Crypto billionaire Arthur Hayes posits that the majority of crypto users prioritize ease of use over decentralization, prompting discussions on how this preference may influence user behavior and the future of cryptocurrency adoption.

“At the end of the day, the average person doesn’t actually care about decentralization or centralization,” the former CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX stated during a podcast hosted by Decrypt.

Hayes explained, “If you want to actually become your own financial institution and take control of the destiny of your finances, that’s there for you to do at this point, [but] it’s harder to use.”

In his opinion, what will truly make cryptocurrency attractive to a growing number of users worldwide is a “good price, good product, good user experience,” as the entrepreneur asserted.

“That’s all the majority of you will care about and will care about in the future,” according to BitMEX’s former CEO.

Crypto could save investors

At the same time, Hayes said he believes that the crypto sector has the potential to save investors from what he described as a broken banking system. 

The billionaire stated that the traditional finance industry’s rapidly rising use of debt has long become detached from its past utility. 

“I don’t care if you’re capitalist or you’re a communist. Everybody put on a lot of debt. We’ve passed the point where that debt is becoming useful,” according to the businessman. 

“If you look at the global fiat system, we’ve piled on … like two or three hundred percent global GDP into debt over the past fifty years.”

“And therefore, everyone is going to take an L unless they get some crypto or some gold—some hard asset that’s outside of the traditional banking system,” Hayes said. 

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice charged BitMEX’s former CEO with violating the country’s Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement an anti-money laundering program at the crypto exchange. 

Hayes pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to two years of probation and six months of home detention. 

Over the past years, the crypto billionaire has voiced many opinions on the outlook for the crypto industry, some of which have triggered major controversies within the cryptosphere. 

Last August, the entrepreneur apologized in an essay for calling Ethereum (ETH) a shitcoin years ago.