Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan is placing one of his strongest long-term bets on the growth of digital assets, telling clients this week that he expects the crypto market to expand by 10 to 20 times over the next decade. In his view, the industry is still in the early stages of a shift that could reshape how financial markets operate.
Hougan pointed to recent remarks from SEC Chair Paul Atkins, who told Fox Business that he believes all U.S. equity markets could move onchain within a few years. Today, roughly $68 trillion sits in U.S. stocks, while only about $670 million in tokenized equities exists. For Hougan, that gap shows how much room the market has to grow if traditional assets migrate to blockchain systems at scale.
He expects several areas to become more important as this shift unfolds: stablecoins, tokenized assets, Bitcoin, decentralized finance, prediction markets, privacy tools, and digital identity among them. He framed these as emerging use cases that could broaden crypto’s role in global finance.
Still, Hougan was clear about one thing: no one knows which blockchain networks will win. After years of speaking with investors, project teams, and researchers, he said the landscape is too uncertain to call. Regulation, broader economic conditions, execution by teams, and a fair amount of luck will all play a part. Anyone claiming full confidence about a clear winner, he said, is likely overstating their insight.
That uncertainty shapes how he invests. Hougan said he prefers broad exposure through a market-cap-weighted crypto index fund rather than taking big bets on individual chains. He still makes small, targeted investments, but the index serves as the core of his portfolio. For him, this approach reduces the risk of choosing the wrong network in a market that could grow dramatically.
“Imagine getting the overall market direction right,” he wrote, “but still missing out because you backed the wrong project.”
Looking ahead, Hougan expects index-based strategies to gain traction as the ecosystem becomes more complex. He believes 2026 could mark a turning point, with index funds playing a larger role in helping investors capture the industry’s broader upside while managing the uncertainty that comes with rapid innovation.
