Bitwise CIO: How to Invest in the Crypto Industry

Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise; Translated by: Jinse Finance

What's interesting about this industry is that many people you meet are absolutely convinced of everything:

“Ethereum is better than Solana, it will eventually dominate.”

“Solana is stronger than Ethereum, it will definitely crush its competitor in the long run.”

“Only Bitcoin is the key.”

I always find this incredible.

I have been working full-time in the cryptocurrency industry for eight years, I have about 140 colleagues who share my ideas, and I frequently communicate with top venture capitalists, project founders, researchers, and foundations, giving me a deep understanding of these network ecosystems.

I have been working in the cryptocurrency industry full-time for eight years, I have about 140 colleagues who share my ideas, and I frequently communicate with top venture capitalists, project founders, researchers, and foundations, giving me a deep understanding of these network ecosystems.

Even so, I still cannot confidently tell you which public chain will ultimately prevail, or how things will unfold precisely. At this current stage of cryptocurrency development, I believe the final outcome is unpredictable. Regulatory policies, project execution, the macroeconomic environment, the decisions of a few key figures, luck, and hundreds of other variables will all influence the final outcome. Accurately predicting all these factors would require supernatural foresight. Those who claim absolute certainty, I believe, are deceiving themselves. So, how should one invest? Faced with this uncertainty, my strategy is simple: buy the entire market. Specifically, I will invest in market capitalization-weighted cryptocurrency index funds. Why? Because my strongest bet in the cryptocurrency space is that cryptocurrencies ten years from now will be far more important than they are today. My view is that stablecoins will become even more important, tokenization will play a greater role, and Bitcoin's influence will continue to grow. Furthermore, I believe more than a dozen major application scenarios will emerge: prediction markets, decentralized finance (DeFi), privacy technologies, digital identity, new forms of equity, and so on. In my opinion, it's entirely possible for the entire cryptocurrency market to easily grow 10 to 20 times in the next decade. Don't believe it? A few days ago, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated in an interview with Fox Business that he expects "within the next few years," all US stock markets will migrate to blockchain. This involves $68 trillion in equity assets—while today, tokenized stocks are only worth about $670 million. This means a potential shift of about 100,000 times. I want to participate in investing in this transformation. But the key is: I don't want to risk betting on the wrong public chains. Imagine accurately predicting a market that will grow 100,000 times, only to underperform the market because you chose the wrong investment—that would be a huge disappointment. Therefore, I use cryptocurrency index funds as the core of my portfolio, only placing bets on a few individual stocks at the periphery. This way, regardless of how the cryptocurrency industry evolves, I can maintain exposure to potential winners and sleep more soundly. Cryptocurrency index funds will be a hot trend in 2026. As the market becomes increasingly complex and application scenarios continue to expand, while it may not be suitable for everyone, it represents an excellent starting point for investment for many (including myself).