Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan spoke in an interview about the state of the crypto industry and his visions for 2025.
Bitwise CIO is bullish
Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise , recently sat down with Altcoin Daily to share his views on the industry and its future. According to Bitwise’s research, Bitcoin could surpass $200,000 by 2025:
“I think it’s going to be a new all-time high. I think it’s definitely going to be a six-figure Bitcoin by the end of the year.
On the one hand, this is the period in Bitcoin’s history where you start to feel the effects of the halving.
We kind of forget that the halving happened. Because there has been so much news, Bitcoin ETFs , Trump at the Bitcoin conference, discussion about strategic reserves, BlackRock…
But the halving is a big deal, and you’re just starting to feel it. We also have ETFs, which, again, I think next year will be bigger than this year from an adoption standpoint. And then we have the four-year generalized cycle, or this is the year where the bulls really start to come out.
We also have governments continuing to abuse fiat currencies, stimulus in China, and rate cuts. It’s a pretty positive picture. So I think Bitcoin will end the year at new all-time highs, and then I suspect it will surpass that in 2025, and that will be a strong year for the markets.”
The most important thing about ETFs , according to Matt, is that they tend to perform and grow over several years:
What cryptocurrencies should realize about ETFs is that these are multi-year stories. If you look at the gold ETF, which when it launched was the most successful ETF launch of all time, the second year had more inflows than the first year, the third year had more inflows than the second year, the fourth year had more inflows than the third year. For eight years in a row, I actually think the same thing is going to happen for Bitcoin ETFs.
It’s amazing. I bet your second year will be better. And I bet your third year will be better. ETFs require a five- to ten-year run to maturity.”
Bitcoin and Ethereum rally
Matt says the recent rally is due to the anticipation of the election and that the bull rally has truly begun:
“I think it’s really people realizing that they can’t wait for the election to distribute the allocations. There’s so much positive pent-up demand for crypto and Bitcoin in particular in the market.
So many long-term trends that are moving us forward. We have Bitcoin ETFs. We have Larry Fink on TV talking about this being a major asset class. We have institutions moving in. But people kind of thought they could wait until after the election to get in.
I think yesterday, when Kamala Harris put out a vaguely pro-crypto comment in a policy position paper, that was enough to make people realize that they had to get in now, that they couldn’t wait until the end.
Our somewhat wise view is that crypto will end the year at new all-time highs. And it was just a matter of when the rally starts.
It is possible that the rally has already started”
He says Harris’ election would have a “neutral impact on Bitcoin and Ethereum.” But it could be more damaging in the short term for alt-coins.
The elections are a “negative” element for investors and they were waiting for positive signals from the price to get started. This rise could therefore bring a lot of liquidity and remove uncertainty:
There’s a really significant amount of money on the sidelines. You know, kind of wisely, what we do all day long is talk about crypto with financial advisors, family offices, and institutions.
They all had their eyes on the election, wondering if crypto would get the green light. There’s nothing markets hate more than uncertainty. And I think for a lot of people, elections represent uncertainty.
And so they were sitting on the sidelines. They realized that crypto wasn’t going away. They realized that it was moving into an institutional part of the world. But they thought they could wait and delay.
I think if this rally continues, if we continue to see momentum and it gets back up toward 70,000, I think it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People realize they need to get on the train before the election.
They can’t wait until everything is clear. And that’s normal. You often see, you know, assets rally before the news. And I think that’s kind of what we might see here. And just to get more of your thoughts or your kind of wise thoughts on the potential of presidents that could be elected in the United States.”
To conclude, Matt is also bullish on Ethereum . He describes Vitalik’s blockchain as the “contrarian” choice of the market and that ETH could reach 5 digits:
“I make a very bullish argument for Ethereum. I’m bullish on both and I think the setup for both is pretty good.
If we see significant growth in the apps space, I think it will depend on that.
I think it’s maybe more conditional than Bitcoin. We need positive legislation around stablecoins that helps aggressively integrate them into the mainstream. We need to see more growth in applications based on the Ethereum ecosystem.
If we see those two things, absolutely, ETH could go to all-time highs. And I think people will look past the current concerns and focus on what’s happening to fees. I don’t think that’s the bet to play with Ethereum right now.
Ethereum is like the asset that people love to hate. It’s kind of the middle child of crypto. It’s not the OG Bitcoin or the star.
People assume that Ethereum is like the old tech and it struggles with fee compression as assets move to layer two and activity moves to layer two. But when you step back and look at it, what are the best applications in crypto outside of Bitcoin?
And so I think Ethereum has been kind of overlooked this year because it’s going through this complex adolescent adjustment in its architecture and it’s been missed by the narrative around the excitement for Solana and the excitement for Bitcoin.”