Arthur Hayes, once among the most recognisable names in cryptocurrency trading, has shifted his focus towards a new pursuit – extending human life.
The BitMEX co-founder, who built the platform into one of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges before facing legal charges, has taken a major stake and board seat in a stem cell company with clinics in Mexico and Bangkok.
Hayes has been a regular patient for more than a year, travelling to the centres for infusions he believes can prolong his health span.
He said in a recent video interview,
“I want to live as long as possible, as healthy as possible.”
He declined to identify the company as it undergoes a rebrand, but confirmed he joined its board earlier this summer.
In March, US President Donald Trump issued pardons to Hayes and his BitMEX co-founders Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed.
The trio had been charged in 2020 with breaching the Bank Secrecy Act and pleaded guilty two years later, each paying US$10 million in penalties and receiving probation.
While Hayes admitted the pardon did little to change his professional standing, it removed a major blemish from his record.
Even before the pardon, Hayes had settled into life in Singapore, splitting his time between the city-state and winters in Japan’s Hokkaido ski slopes.
His essays on markets, monetary theory and culture continue to circulate widely within the crypto community, often sparking new projects.
One piece published in March 2023, Dust on Crust, directly inspired the creation of Ethena’s synthetic dollar, now valued at US$11.6 billion.
Hayes’s investment reflects a broader shift among crypto pioneers who are funnelling fortunes into biotechnology and life-extension research.
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin has donated millions to organisations studying ageing, while Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong co-founded NewLimit, a genetic engineering company that raised US$130 million earlier this year.
Former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan has also invested heavily in biotech and experimental social projects.
Despite his interest in health science, Hayes has not stepped back from crypto.
His family office, Maelstrom, has supported several digital asset treasury companies – listed firms that accumulate cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets.
These so-called DATs now hold roughly US$110 billion in Bitcoin, according to CoinGecko.
Yet Hayes has warned the sector is expanding too quickly.
“The DATs that differentiate themselves are going to be the ones that are able to get the volume market cap metrics that allow passive index money managers in the United States to allocate to them. If they fail at that, then I definitely could see a lot of these treasury companies trading at a discount. And it’s obviously very difficult to unwind these trades if they trade at a discount.”
The US president himself has leaned into the treasury model.
Trump Media and Technology Group, operator of Truth Social, raised more than US$2 billion this year to buy Bitcoin.
Other ventures linked to the Trump family include a Las Vegas firm raising US$1.5 billion for token purchases and the launch of several memecoins tied to both Donald and Melania Trump.
While critics warn of conflicts of interest, Hayes views the trend as further validation of crypto’s role in politics.
He said,
“If you have the president of the empire creating his own memecoin and it’s freely tradable, I think that gives licence to other politicians to use memecoins as a way to do campaign finance. I love that Trump launched his own memecoin. I really don’t care what the price did.”
A Pennsylvania lawmaker has put forward a bill to stop politicians and their families from owning or trading crypto while in office. The plan follows claims that Donald Trump has used his role to profit from tokens like his own memecoin.
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