Bitwise CIO says advisors are looking beyond Bitcoin for the next crypto cycle

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said financial advisors remain highly interested in crypto, but their attention is shifting toward stablecoins and tokenization rather than Bitcoin.

Hougan said in a recent memo that he spoke with more than 40 financial advisors in a single day across eight sales calls. His main takeaway was that advisors are still engaged with crypto despite the market pullback, but their questions are increasingly focused on real world applications.

“Their eyes are on stablecoins and tokenization more than bitcoin,” Hougan wrote.

The shift matters because financial advisors could become one of the next major buyer groups for crypto, especially as many still face access and allocation hurdles.

Hougan said previous crypto recoveries were driven by a mix of new products and new investor groups, citing Ethereum after the 2014 bear market, DeFi after 2018, and Bitcoin ETFs after the FTX collapse.

This time, he said stablecoins, tokenization, perpetual futures, and other practical crypto use cases could help drive the next phase of adoption.

Bitcoin has historically led crypto out of downturns because it is the largest and most established asset. Hougan said he still views Bitcoin near $60,000 as attractive for long term investors, but advisor conversations this week showed more interest in the infrastructure around digital assets.

He pointed to stablecoins and tokenized assets becoming regular topics among major financial and regulatory figures, including SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

If advisors become the marginal buyer in the next cycle, Hougan said flows may first move into assets and companies tied to stablecoins, tokenization, and onchain financial infrastructure. He cited Ethereum, Solana, Canton, Chainlink, Avalanche, Hyperliquid, Figure, Circle, and Coinbase as examples that came up in conversations.

Hougan said the broader point is that advisors now have a more developed view of crypto than they did two years ago. Rather than treating the sector as a Bitcoin only trade, they are looking at payments, capital markets, and tokenized financial products.

“That’s a big deal,” Hougan wrote. “It might also be the thing that leads us into the next bull market.”

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.