Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan says he’s bullish on Solana, citing two key reasons he believes the layer-1 blockchain stands out among its competitors — including Ethereum.
“I love investments that give me two ways to win,” Hougan wrote in an X post on Thursday, explaining that Solana represents a dual bet: that the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market will expand, and that Solana will capture an increasing share of that growth. “Both seem like good bets to me,” he added.
Hougan also suggested that the potential for these technologies is being vastly underestimated, noting, “It’s easy for me to imagine this market growing by 10x or more — and much faster than most people expect.”
“I’m very bullish on Ethereum and select other blockchains. But I do like Solana’s odds of winning a larger share of this market. It offers fast, user-friendly technology, backed by a great community with a ship-fast attitude.”
Hougan has been consistently bullish on Solana, recently predicting that the blockchain could become Wall Street’s preferred network for stablecoins. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley has echoed that optimism, suggesting Solana could outpace Ethereum in the staking exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, thanks to its investor-friendly design and efficiency.
Solana still has a long way to go before challenging Ethereum’s dominance.
Ethereum continues to lead by a wide margin, boasting a stablecoin market capitalization of over $163 billion and more than $85 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.
By comparison, Solana’s stablecoin market cap stands at around $14.9 billion, with a TVL of just over $11.3 billion — a fraction of Ethereum’s scale.
However, Hougan noted that Tron, Solana, and BNB Smart Chain remain among the strongest contenders for Ethereum’s top spot.
Solana sees rising institutional momentum
Hougan added that institutional interest in Solana is accelerating, pointing to Western Union’s recent decision to use the Solana blockchain for its upcoming stablecoin settlement system as a prime example.
“It’s a newer asset that’s still catching up to its peers in securing institutional mandates,” he said, “but it’s clearly gaining momentum.”
“If I’m right, the combination of a growing market and a growing market share will be explosive for Solana. Just as with Bitcoin.”
Bitwise also offers Solana-linked products, including its recently launched Solana staking ETF, which debuted on Tuesday.
Bitcoin offers a similar “two-way win”
Hougan added that Bitcoin presents a comparable dual-upside opportunity — as a bet that the global store-of-value market expands, and that Bitcoin captures a growing share of it. “Only one of those needs to happen for me to do well,” he said.
“A mistake many investors make is focusing too much on Bitcoin winning market share and too little on the growth of the market. The global store of value market has grown by 10x in the past 20 years, from under $3 trillion in 2005 to $27.5 trillion today.”
