Digital Asset Outlook with Matt Hougan – 10/1/26

Crypto is changing—and the next phase may look very different from the one that got us here.

Today on TraderMerlin, I'm joined by Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management, for a deep dive into the current state of cryptocurrency and digital assets—and where this rapidly evolving market may be headed next.

Matt brings a particularly interesting perspective to this conversation.

Before becoming CIO of Bitwise, he was CEO of ETF.com and has spent years working at the intersection of ETFs, institutional investing and digital assets. Today, Bitwise manages billions of dollars across crypto ETFs, private funds, separately managed accounts, staking strategies and other digital-asset investment products.

In other words, Matt has a front-row seat to one of the biggest transformations taking place in financial markets:

Crypto is moving from speculation toward financial infrastructure.

We'll talk about Bitcoin and the current crypto market, but I want to go much further than simply asking where BTC goes next.

We'll discuss:

Crypto Regulation – After the failure of the CLARITY Act, what happens next? Can the SEC and CFTC provide enough regulatory certainty without Congress? Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs – How ETFs have changed institutional access to crypto and what investor flows are telling us Institutional Adoption – Are pensions, endowments, RIAs, family offices and other major investors actually increasing their exposure? Tokenization – Could stocks, bonds, real estate and other traditional assets ultimately move onchain? Stablecoins – Are they simply digital dollars—or the foundation of an entirely new financial system? Wall Street Goes Onchain – What happens when traditional finance and decentralized finance begin to converge? Beyond Bitcoin – Where Matt sees opportunity across Ethereum, Solana, DeFi and the broader digital-asset ecosystem Crypto ETFs – What's next as Wall Street continues expanding the menu of regulated crypto investment products? The Next Crypto Cycle – Will the next major move be driven by speculation—or real-world adoption? And this last point may be the most important.

For years, crypto investors have been waiting for "the institutions" to arrive.

But maybe we're asking the wrong question.

What happens when institutions don't simply invest in crypto—but actually begin using blockchain technology to rebuild parts of the financial system?