Bitwise CIO: Crypto's Structural Shift Is Being Mispriced

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan argues that anchoring bias is preventing both traditional and crypto investors from recognizing the scale of Wall Street's move toward blockchain-based infrastructure.

What Happened: Tokenization Accelerates

Hougan, writing in his latest memo, laid out a series of developments that he says demonstrate a fundamental shift in how traditional finance engages with blockchain technology. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins launched "Project Crypto," a commission-wide effort to modernize securities regulation for on-chain markets.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the industry is entering the early stages of tokenizing all assets. BlackRock followed through by launching its $2 billion BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund on Uniswap (UNI).

Apollo tokenized its $700 billion Diversified Credit Fund across six blockchains and announced plans to acquire a stake in Morpho. Major banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo — are discussing a joint stablecoin, while JPMorgan has already launched a deposit token on Base. Fidelity is hiring a DeFi vaults manager.

Despite these moves, Hougan said traditional investors have failed to register the changes. Even crypto investors exhibit fatigue from repeated claims of institutional adoption, he added.