Bitwise: “Wall Street is accelerating finance’s onchain shift… but traditional investors don’t realize it”

An analysis says Wall Street is moving in earnest to shift finance onchain, but traditional investors are failing to recognize it.

According to Cointelegraph on the 25th (local time), Matt Hougan, chief investment officer (CIO) at Bitwise, wrote in an investor letter: “Everywhere I look, Wall Street is shouting that finance is moving onchain. Not some of it— all of it.” He added, “But traditional investors aren’t hearing it.”

Hougan said investors are trapped by “anchoring bias,” judging based on crypto’s early image. “People still see crypto as a tattooed skateboarder,” he said, “but he’s wearing a suit and building the infrastructure that will underpin the next generation of capital markets.”

He stressed that amid a more favorable stance from U.S. regulators and Congress, major financial institutions are ramping up tokenization and stablecoin adoption. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched “Project Crypto” in July, saying it would support the onchain transition of U.S. financial markets.

The value of tokenized assets issued on blockchains—such as U.S. Treasuries and commodities—has neared $20 billion. Hougan said the figure has more than quadrupled over the course of 2025, describing the “slope of the chart as steeper than Mount Everest.”

BlackRock and Apollo have launched tokenized funds worth billions of dollars, while large banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are discussing stablecoin adoption.

“There’s a large gap between what is actually happening in crypto and what people think is happening,” Hougan said. “That gap creates an opportunity to build broad exposure while the market underestimates the structural shift.”