Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, says traditional investors are underestimating the long-term impact crypto could have on global financial markets — creating a potential opportunity for forward-looking capital.
“Everywhere I look, Wall Street is screaming that finance is moving on-chain. Not a little of it; all of it,” Hougan wrote in a note Tuesday. “Yet traditional investors can’t hear it.”
He argued that many investors are still influenced by “anchoring bias,” clinging to outdated perceptions of crypto from its early days as a niche technology associated with cypherpunks and dark web marketplaces.
“They look at crypto and still see a punk skateboarder with tattoos,” Hougan said. “They don’t realize he’s shaved, put on a suit, and is deploying infrastructure that will underpin the next generation of capital markets.”
In recent months, major financial institutions have rolled out or tested crypto-related initiatives — particularly in tokenization and stablecoins — encouraged in part by supportive moves from US regulators and lawmakers.
Both traditional and crypto investors missing the shift
Hougan added that crypto-native investors may also be overlooking the significance of the current institutional push, having heard repeated promises of mainstream adoption in the past.
“They’re suffering from ‘the boy who cried wolf’ syndrome,” he said. “They’ve heard the promises of institutional adoption for so long that they no longer register.”
However, Hougan contends the landscape is now materially different, pointing to growing regulatory backing — including the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Project Crypto,” launched in July to help enable America’s financial markets to move on-chain, according to SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
Meanwhile, the value of tokenized assets on public blockchains — including US Treasurys and commodities — is approaching $20 billion, Hougan noted, more than quadrupling over the course of 2025.
“The numbers in question are enormous,” Matt Hougan said, noting that with hundreds of trillions of dollars circulating across exchange-traded funds, equities and bonds, the tokenization market “can grow 10,000x and still have room to grow.”
He pointed out that asset management giant BlackRock and credit investment firm Apollo Global Management have already launched onchain tokenized funds worth billions of dollars. Meanwhile, major US banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo — are reportedly in discussions around issuing a stablecoin.
“There is a large delta between what people think is happening in crypto and what is actually happening,” Hougan said.
“From where I sit, that gap creates a significant opportunity — not to try to pick winners prematurely, but to build broad exposure to the space while the market is still mispricing the structural shift,” he added.
