Arthur Hayes: Scott Bessent Is 'Yellen 2.0' and Bitcoin Is the 'Liquidity Smoke Alarm'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is “Yellen 2.0,” according to Maelstrom founder Arthur Hayes, who on Tuesday argued that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is already detecting the “money printing to come.”

Why Does Hayes Compare Bessent to Yellen?

Hayes wrote in a Substack essay that both former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Scott Bessent faced the same problem: a 10-year Treasury yield approaching 5% that makes mortgages, corporate debt and consumer financing prohibitively expensive.

Both responded by finding ways to inject dollar liquidity without calling it money printing.

Yellen’s move in late 2023 was flooding the market with T-bills, pulling $2.4 trillion out of the Fed’s Reverse Repo Program into the banking system where it could be recycled into financial markets. 

Bitcoin rallied hard off its FTX lows directly after that injection. Bessent is running the same playbook by doubling long-end bond buybacks while the Fed’s Reserves Management Program quietly prints money to absorb T-bill issuance on the other side.

Why Is the Bond Market’s Pushback Actually Bullish?

Bessent’s Aug. 19 buyback announcement pushed 10-year yields lower for exactly one trading session before they climbed back above pre-announcement levels.