Bitcoin is down 50% from its highs — but Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says the price is the least important thing happening in crypto right now.
In this episode of Raise Your Average, hosts Pierre Daillie and Mike Philbrick sit down with Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management, to make sense of the 2026 crypto winter. Hougan argues this is "the best winter ever" for crypto: prices are down, but the fundamentals, regulatory clarity, and institutional infrastructure are stronger than in any prior cycle. The conversation moves from Bitcoin's role as scarce, digital hard money to the quieter, faster-moving story underneath it: stablecoins and tokenization rebuilding the plumbing of global finance.
Hougan walks through why the "neutral" Bitcoin allocation isn't zero, why advisors and institutions get stuck at the finish line even after months of due diligence, and how blockchain rails already move money and assets faster and cheaper than traditional banking. The episode closes with a deep dive into agentic AI, exploring how autonomous AI agents transacting 24/7 could become the largest driver of blockchain activity yet, and what that means for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, and Bittensor. A must-listen for advisors trying to figure out how to talk to clients about crypto without the noise.
Timestamped Chapters
00:00 – Cold open: crypto winter and Bitcoin at $62K
06:30 – Welcome, Matt Hougan (Bitwise CIO)
09:00 – SpaceX's IPO vs. Bitcoin's entire market cap
10:40 – Why this is "the best crypto winter ever"
16:40 – Institutions take 8 meetings to allocate — then freeze
17:16 – The sticky-note trick for disciplined buying
19:14 – Crawl, walk, run: a systematic approach to allocation
20:32 – Why the neutral Bitcoin position is 1-2%, not zero
22:29 – Bitcoin vs. gold: scarcity, cash flow, and correlation
26:08 – Blockchain 101: Bitcoin vs. Ethereum vs. Solana
27:23 – Stablecoins and tokenization, explained simply
29:31 – Investing in tokens vs. the companies building on them
32:26 – What's really holding back adoption (the AI "black hole")
34:50 – SEC Chair Paul Atkins on tokenizing all stocks and bonds
41:42 – Instant settlement and the velocity of money (casino example)
46:12 – Inverting the objections: why the old system is the strange one
49:07 – Do you actually own your stocks? Distributed ownership explained
58:27 – Agentic AI meets tokenization: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, Tao
1:05:05 – Digital natives and the next generation of finance
1:07:08 – Advisor takeaways: how to talk to clients about crypto
1:09:02 – The final case for a portfolio allocation
1:11:06 – Free Bitwise resources for advisors
1:14:23 – Bitwise's product lineup, including its flagship index fund
1:16:36 – Where to find Matt Hougan
Matt Hougan on Linkedin
Bitwise Asset Management
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