Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the shifting cryptocurrency landscape with Bitwise Asset Management’s Matthew Hougan.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Matt, it is so great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and you’ve got some great survey results here. I have to say, just take from my own personal point of view, 2025 seems to have been a watershed year, landmark year for the cryptocurrency market. I want to get your reaction and then we can talk about financial advisors and what they thought, but your reaction first, sir.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, absolutely. I think 2025 is the year that crypto really started to go mainstream. You started to see large Wall Street banks talk about it regularly in earnings reports.
You had ideas like stable coins and tokenization enter mainstream conversation. You had some of the largest investors in the world, endowments like Harvard’s endowment allocating to Bitcoin. So if I had to sum up 2025 in one word, it would be mainstream.
And I think that shows in some of the data that we have.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And one of the areas that I thought is particularly interesting is I think they’re called spot ETFs and they allow people like me, regular investors to buy parts of, because the Bitcoin or cryptocurrency may be just too expensive for my balance sheet, but now that really helps take it mainstream as well.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
That’s exactly right. The launch of spot ETFs and then their growth last year made it push button easy. You can now buy exposure to Bitcoin or other top crypto assets like Ethereum in the same way that you would buy Apple stock or same way you would buy the S&P 500.
And behind the scenes, institutional managers like Bitwise take care of the complex thing, like custody, trading, audit, et cetera. It’s designed to make it super easy, super regulated, and it’s really brought a lot of investors into the space.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Now, many Americans, Matt, they still interact with a financial advisor. They may go through a financial platform like a Robinhood or Charles Schwab, but it seems like the perspective of financial advisors has actually migrated along with investor preferences as well.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, that’s exactly right. At Bitwise, we’ve been in this market for eight years and we’re designed to serve that professional investor market, the financial advisor market. And we’ve been doing surveys of these advisors.
How do they think about crypto? Are they using it in client accounts for the last eight years? And to go back to where we started this conversation, what we saw in the survey this year is that crypto really went mainstream.
We now have something like 30 to 40 percent of advisors using crypto in client accounts. It’s no longer just a one-off. It’s become part of the recipe of building a high-quality portfolio alongside stocks, bonds, assets like gold and other commodities.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And one of the things that a lot of financial advisors talk about is the buy and hold mentality. It seems, at least based on the survey results, that people that buy a cryptocurrency aren’t just arbitraging and aren’t just coming in and out and day trading it. They’re actually holding it for the long term.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, that’s maybe one of the most remarkable results from this survey. We asked financial advisors who owned crypto exposure last year, in 2024 to be specific, in 2025, if they plan to add, reduce or eliminate their exposure in 2026. And 99 percent of advisors plan to either maintain or add to their exposure to crypto.
What’s really remarkable about that is 2025 was not a great year for crypto prices. Actually, Bitcoin ended the year down. Other assets ended the year down more.
You would think in that sort of environment, we might see advisors stepping away. But I think they recognize that that pullback was opportunity. They’re in it for the long haul.
They think Bitcoin and crypto will be more important in 10 years than they are today, and they’re positioning clients accordingly. So it was really a remarkable finding. I’ve never seen that in any other area of finance, where 99 percent of existing investors plan to increase or maintain their exposure.
It tells you that crypto is here to stay.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
You know, I kind of liken it to, I come from the retirement industry, the dollar cost averaging. You’re probably very familiar with that term. But we would say over the long haul, if you just keep investing, you’re going to be way better off than if you just stop and try to day trade.
Let me shift gears and ask you about the regulatory environment. Obviously, we’ve got a new president, a new administration. Has that regulatory environment created a little bit more certainty?
And therefore, maybe that’s one of the reasons why retail investors, investors and financial advisors are attracted to this asset class.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, I think that’s a big part of it. You know, for the last eight years, as I mentioned, we’ve done this survey and we’ve asked investors each year, what is the thing keeping them out of investing in crypto? And you might think it would be volatility or it’s difficult to diagnose the fundamentals of crypto.
But that hasn’t been it. The number one thing that these advisors listed every year as their biggest blocker, preventing them from entering the market, was regulatory uncertainty and regulatory risk. And as you mentioned, under the new administration with a new pro-crypto head of the SEC, we’ve seen a dramatic improvement in the regulatory standing of crypto.
It’s now sort of regulated in much the same way, not precisely, but much the same way as traditional finance. And you’re seeing this pass through lots of ways. You’re seeing it with the largest asset management firms in the world building in crypto.
You know, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is now also a large crypto manager. But you’re also seeing it in advisors and professional investors adding crypto to their portfolios. They feel like it’s safe to go back in the water.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Matt, when you look out into 2026, here we are, it’s only January, but it feels like it’s been longer than January. What are the things that you’re looking for? We’re expecting, well, we had the president last year issue an executive order around alternatives, which would include cryptocurrency in retirement programs.
Is that something you’re looking for in terms of guidance? And what other things, what other trends are you looking at this year?
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, we expect to see progress on incorporating crypto into retirement programs. A few other major catalysts that are looming on the horizon. Congress is currently debating another major piece of crypto legislation called the Clarity Act, which provide a firm legislative footing for the crypto industry that could last for years.
Passage of that, I think, would be very good for the crypto market. And then more broadly, it’s just the continuation of what’s been happening over the last few years. The continued institutional adoption of crypto into portfolios, the continued growth of things like stablecoins and tokenization disrupting the way Wall Street and much of finance works today.
Crypto has been one of the fastest growing industries in the world over the last decade, and it’s actually accelerating now in this new positive regulatory environment. So a lot of what I’m going to look for in 2026 is just the positive impact of that acceleration. More adoption, more use, more purchasing and institutional portfolios.
I think the outlook is very bright for crypto.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, Matt, we’ve covered a lot of ground today or this morning, I should say. We’ve got about a minute left. What do you think are some of the key takeaways from our conversation today?
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Yeah, I think investors who haven’t looked at crypto in a while should look at it again. One of the things that our studies show is that the largest financial professionals in the world are increasingly treating crypto as just another asset class, alongside stocks, bonds and commodities. So it’s become a normalized part of the portfolio.
If I had one message to people who maybe haven’t thought about crypto in five or 10 years, it’s that the industry has evolved. It’s now more institutional. It’s much more regulated.
It’s much more safe. It’s still a volatile investment. I don’t want to paper over that.
Bitcoin is about as volatile as large cap AI stocks like Nvidia does move around a lot, but it’s become a normal and increasingly important part of our global financial infrastructure. And I think that trend will continue for years to come.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, Matt, certainly a lot going on in the cryptocurrency space. Really appreciate you coming on the program. And look, we have to cover more ground.
We look forward to having you back again very soon, sir.
Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise Asset Management
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.