Bitwise Says Bitcoin Alone Won’t Be Enough as Digital-Asset Investing Broadens [DAIF 2026]

Digital Asset Investment Insight Forum 2026

Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise

Bitwise said the time has come for investors to move beyond a Bitcoin-centered approach and broaden exposure across digital assets. After the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the market has entered a new growth phase, creating opportunities across the broader digital-asset ecosystem.

Matthew Hougan, Bitwise's chief investment officer, delivered a presentation titled "Digital Asset Investment Strategy After Spot Bitcoin ETFs" at the Digital Asset Investment Insight Forum 2026, or DAIF 2026, held at the Conrad Seoul in Yeouido on July 2.

Over the next few years, the digital-asset market will move beyond a structure centered on Bitcoin and Ether and shift toward a much wider range of assets, Hougan said. As that happens, he added, distinguishing between assets worth investing in and those that are not will become more important.

Hougan compared the shift to the growth of the internet industry. In the early days of the internet, investment opportunities extended beyond Google to companies including Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce and Nvidia. Blockchain, as a general-purpose technology, is also set to generate a wide range of applications and investment opportunities.

He described Bitcoin as the core asset of the digital-asset market. Calling it "digital gold," Hougan said Bitcoin allows investors to store wealth without relying on banks or governments. By 2035, it could account for 25% of the gold store-of-value market, which would put Bitcoin at as much as $1.3 million.

Still, he said Bitcoin alone does not explain the entire blockchain industry. Ether helps move a variety of assets, including dollars, stocks and bonds, on blockchain networks, while Solana competes in the same market with faster transaction speeds. Chainlink links real-world data to blockchains, and Uniswap serves as core infrastructure for digital-asset trading. Blockchain is a single technology, he said, but the services built on top of it are highly diverse.

Hougan also proposed investing in the market as a whole rather than trying to pick individual tokens. More than 17,000 digital assets now exist globally, with new projects emerging every day. Instead of trying to identify winners one by one, investors can pursue a strategy that captures growth across the broader market, he said, citing Bitwise 10, the firm's flagship index product, as an example.

He also recommended allocating a portion of portfolios to digital assets. Adding 2.5% to 5% of digital assets to a traditional 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolio lifted long-term returns while keeping the increase in risk limited, Hougan said. The same result appeared not only over the past decade but in every rolling three-year analysis, where digital-asset exposure improved both absolute returns and risk-adjusted returns.

Wrapping up his presentation, Hougan said the digital-asset industry has only just entered a new expansion phase. Just as the internet gave rise to industries such as search, e-commerce and artificial intelligence, blockchain will create thousands of new use cases, he said. Investors should now look beyond Bitcoin alone and focus on the growth of the entire digital-asset ecosystem.

Lee Young-min, Bloomingbit reporter/Kim Su-hyeon, Bloomingbit reporter