Matt Hougan "Digital asset market could grow 10 to 20 times over the next 10 years"

The digital asset (cryptocurrency) market could expand 10 to 20 times within the next 10 years, according to a forecast. The analysis says that the expansion of the tokenization market and increased adoption of Bitcoin and stablecoins will strengthen the long-term growth foundation.

On the 9th (local time), crypto-focused media The Block reported that Matt Hougan, chief investment officer (CIO) of Bitwise, said in an investor note the previous day, "Digital assets are the area I am most confident in among my investment ideas," and added, "The market can easily grow 10 to 20 times over the next 10 years."

Hougan cited recent remarks by SEC chair Paul Atkins as the basis for this outlook. Chair Atkins said in a Fox Business interview last week that "the entire U.S. stock market will move on-chain within a few years."

Hougan explained that while the U.S. stock market is about $68 trillion in size, the current on-chain tokenized equity market is only about $670 million. He said, "The (blockchain) transition is still in its early stages, but the growth potential compared to the current market is overwhelming," and predicted, "Stablecoins, tokenized assets, and the role of Bitcoin will grow larger, and new use cases such as prediction markets, DeFi, privacy technologies, and digital identity will follow."

However, he stressed, "It is difficult at this stage to predict which blockchain will be the ultimate winner." He explained that the regulatory environment, technical implementation, macro variables, key individuals' decisions, and even luck all act together, so being confident in a single chain is premature.

Hougan said, "To say you are certain about a specific chain is self-deception," and said he prefers a market-cap-weighted digital asset index investment strategy rather than betting on individual names. He said, "Even if the market grows 100x or 1000x, choosing the wrong chain could underperform the market," and predicted that next year the share of index-based investments will expand further.