Bitwise CIO: Wall Street Accelerates "On-Chain" Transformation, Investor Awareness Lag Could Lead to Missed Opportunities

Recently, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan issued a memo pointing out that the current cryptocurrency market is caught in a serious disconnect between perception and reality.

Specifically, on one side, Wall Street is rapidly advancing asset tokenization, bringing profound changes to market structure; on the other side, many investors remain anchored to outdated market narratives, failing to recognize and keep up with this critical shift in a timely manner.

In his latest memo, Hougan emphasized that the trend of Wall Street's on-chain transformation can no longer be ignored. On the regulatory front, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has launched efforts aimed at modernizing securities regulation and promoting "crypto projects" operating on the blockchain in the U.S. market;

At the institutional level, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink openly stated that the industry is entering the early stages of asset tokenization, with the company's BUIDL tokenized treasury fund already issuing $2 billion on Uniswap;

In addition, Apollo is tokenizing a $700 billion diversified credit fund; giants like JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are discussing joint issuance of stablecoins; Fidelity is also actively expanding in the DeFi space.

However, traditional investors and even some crypto market participants remain slow to react, still immersed in old market narratives, completely unaware that the industry landscape has undergone a fundamental change.

Hougan warned that although the opportunities for tokenization are obvious, it is still uncertain whether value will ultimately flow to public blockchains, private networks, or traditional financial giants.

He also emphasized that the greatest excess returns in the market often occur during phases when consensus lags behind, and reality has already changed, and the cryptocurrency market is currently at this critical juncture.

In summary, while the market's focus remains on price fluctuations, the infrastructure revolution on Wall Street has quietly begun. As Hougan said, if investors continue to be bound by old narratives, they are very likely to miss out on opportunities and become passive in this new wave of value reconfiguration.

Asset tokenization is not merely a technological iteration but a reshaping of the financial power landscape. Those who can break through cognitive inertia first are more likely to seize the era's dividends brought by "reality change."