Intro

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, joins Bankless for this week's State of the Nation!

Founded in 2017, Bitwise Asset Management pioneered the first cryptocurrency index fund and provides rules-based exposure to the cryptoasset space. Learn about Bitwise's newest product, their DeFi Crypto Index Fund.

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------ SotN #36: Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index | CIO Matt Hougan

Bitwise is connecting DeFi assets to the world of ‘big money.’ Matt Hougan is CIO (Chief Investment Officer) of Bitwise, and before moving into the crypto space, he pioneered the ETF investment vehicles in the world of traditional finance.

Matt, with his dog by his side, posits that there are three ‘buckets’ of wealth in America where capital is pooled. The first is ‘Self-Directed Retail Investors,’ who has bootstrapped crypto from the ground up. The second is ‘Institutional Investors,’ including Venture Capital Firms, Endowments, Foundations, and other large funds. The third – and most neglected – is capital under the ‘Financial Advisor’ umbrella. This is where the 1%-er money is, and this bucket is just now gaining access to the crypto space.

The Financial Advisor bucket holds $30-$40 Trillion in assets, and the minds in this space are changing as crypto is increasingly legitimized through improving infrastructure and the strong recovery from the 2017 cycle. Building efficient vehicles to bridge this wealth into crypto is critical for large-scale adoption.

This is where Bitwise comes in. Bitwise manages around $1 Billion in assets and created the first Crypto Index Fund, offering a variety of products to retail investors, accredited investors, and financial advisors. Most recently, Bitwise launched its DeFi Crypto Index Fund, exposing financial advisors to the world of DeFi. Analogues to Legacy Finance like Price-to-Earnings Ratios and Cash Flows make DeFi compelling and understandable, but DeFi is showing itself to be “cheaper, more efficient, more open, more transparent, [and] more verifiable.”

------ RELEVANT LINKS:

Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matt_Hougan?s=20 

Bitwise: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/ 

Matt's CFA Report on Cryptoassets: https://www.cfainstitute.org/-/media/documents/article/rf-brief/rfbr-cryptoassets.ashx 

Makerburn https://makerburn.com/#/ 

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Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures