Bitwise Memo: Advisors Still Say "Crypto" but Their Eyes Wander Toward Stablecoins

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said financial advisors remain engaged with crypto, but their attention has shifted from Bitcoin to stablecoins and tokenization after more than 40 advisor meetings in a single day. In a memo published June 10, Hougan described Monday, the day he met eight advisory teams, as his busiest since joining Bitwise eight years ago. He wrote that conversations about Bitcoin were difficult to sustain, even at prices near $60,000 that he considers attractive for long-term investors. Instead, advisors asked about payments, capital markets and tokenized assets, with frequent references to Ethereum ($ETH), Solana ($SOL), Circle ($CRCL) and Coinbase ($COIN), alongside Canton, Chainlink, Avalanche, Hyperliquid and Figure.

Hougan tied the shift to two forces. The "fiat debasement" trade has cooled, with gold trading roughly 20% below its all-time high, and stablecoin and tokenization commentary has become constant on financial television, citing SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. "If you think financial advisors are the marginal net buyer of crypto in the next cycle, the first place money would flow might be into stablecoin- and tokenization-linked investments," Hougan wrote. He compared the dynamic to past cycles, including the spot Bitcoin ETF launches that helped crypto recover from its 2022 collapse, and said advisory inflows could help pull the sector out of its current slump.

Data from analytics firm Artemis, cited in the memo, shows stablecoin mentions in SEC filings and investor presentations reached a record 1,000 in the first quarter of 2026. Regulatory groundwork helps explain the timing. On February 19, SEC staff said broker-dealers may apply a 2% capital haircut to payment stablecoins, treating them as near-cash, guidance that builds on the 2025 GENIUS Act, which created a federal category for payment stablecoins. A March 2025 Fireblocks survey of 295 finance executives found 49% of institutions already use stablecoins for payments, and a separate report indicates the SEC is planning to allow tokenized stock trading.

The signal cuts both ways. Advisor curiosity points to fresh capital that could enter through stablecoin and tokenization products first, but peaking mentions may indicate the theme is already crowded in corporate communications. Bitcoin ($BTC) has struggled to hold momentum, trading near $62,500 and down almost 30% year to date, while Circle, which debuted in a buzzy June 2025 IPO at $31 and rallied to a $240 peak, has since pulled back to just under $79 as of Wednesday. The wider rout has pulled tokenized real-world assets lower as well, even as advisors tell Hougan the next leg of the cycle is more likely to be built on rails than on a single coin.