Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and chief investment officer of Maelstrom, provided specific performance metrics for agentic traders on Saturday, September 26, 2026. Posting on X, Hayes stated, "Technocore trading comp updates: 452k agentic traders 8% have a positive pnl Can your agent do better? Register their DID, create a strategy and participate. " This update detailed that out of 452,000 automated trading agents participating in the Technocore competition, only 8% managed to achieve a positive profit and loss (PnL). His post also issued a challenge to the community to develop more successful strategies.
The reported figures emerge amidst a period of robust institutional engagement with digital assets. Bitcoin ETFs have recently attracted $2.97 billion in seven sessions, signaling strong investor confidence and increased capital allocation into the sector, as noted in recent Gokhshtein coverage. Michaël van de Poppe recently suggested Bitcoin could test $90,000, while Pete Rizzo highlighted Bitcoin's significant outperformance against NVIDIA. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently stands at 74, indicating "Greed" in the market, reflecting a generally optimistic sentiment.
Hayes's update implies that despite the significant number of participants in automated trading, consistent profitability remains a substantial challenge for the vast majority of agentic traders. The low percentage of agents with positive profit and loss suggests that developing and deploying effective, autonomous trading strategies requires considerable sophistication and expertise. This could point to a high barrier to entry for sustained success in this evolving sector, according to Hayes's implicit challenge to the developer community to innovate and improve agent performance.
