Bitwise: “The Most Powerful People in Finance Are Investing in Crypto”

According to Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise, more and more top financial advisors are allocating crypto to their personal portfolios.

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Bitwise, recently published an article sharing his thoughts after speaking at the Barron’s Advisor 100 Summit on September 18-20 in Palm Beach, Florida (USA).

The conference is a gathering of top financial advisors in the US, and Hougan was invited to speak thanks to the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs earlier this year, including Bitwise’s BITB product.

According to the Bitwise CIO, “the wave of the most powerful people in finance are finally allocating crypto to their personal portfolios.”

This observation was summarized by Matt Hougan through a question before his speech, when he asked "how many people in the audience own Bitcoin or other crypto assets in their personal portfolio?" - with the aim of determining whether the participants were crypto experts or newbies, crypto supporters or skeptics.

The result made Bitwise's CIO exclaim "Whao", as almost every hand in the audience was raised.

In the 3 consecutive years of attending and asking the same question at this conference, Hougan said that the number of crypto owners was only between 10% - 20%. However, this time Bitwise's CIO estimated the number to be around 70%.

When he continued to ask "how many people have allocated Bitcoin to customer accounts?", very few hands were kept in the air. Hougan said this is not surprising, as many financial advisors work for brokerage firms that do not allow them to buy Bitcoin spot ETFs.

However, in his experience, Hougan said that financial advisors usually invest in personal accounts first, and the allocation to clients usually occurs about 6-12 months later.

At the end of the article, the Bitwise Investment Director shared the reasons for the change in investment views on crypto among most powerful people in the financial world, including:

The origin is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially "greenlighting" 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs of Wall Street giants earlier this year.

Next is one of the largest financial companies in the US, Morgan Stanley, which has "opened the door" to allow financial brokers to promote Bitcoin spot ETF products to qualified customers. Morgan Stanley already has a Bitcoin ETF trading service, but they only offer this product to customers who actively "seek" it voluntarily, without running advertising campaigns like other "big guys" on Wall Street.

The SEC approved the first Bitcoin Options ETF for BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF product. Thereby increasing the participation of larger organizations such as hedge funds, pension funds and investment firms, who can access Bitcoin by applying a variety of trading strategies.

The Federal Reserve (FED) recently cut interest rates by 50 basis points for the first time in more than 4 years since 2020. This action is expected to be the beginning of a monetary policy easing cycle, in the context of cooling inflation and increasing concerns about the health of the labor market.

Ultimately, the hands raised at the Barron’s Advisor 100 Summit are what Hougan sees as “the most powerful bullish signal of all time.”

“Buying some Bitcoin can be seen as an act of perseverance for people. An act that can create a personal habit. When you hold and monitor Bitcoin in your portfolio, fear tends to give way to curiosity and eventually comfort. When this spreads to their clients, things can have a huge boom.”