Anchored in the Past: Why Investors Are Missing Crypto’s Biggest Opportunity

• Hougan argues behavioural bias, particularly anchoring, is distorting how investors assess crypto today.
• Institutional adoption and regulatory shifts suggest financial markets are increasingly migrating onchain.
• The disparity between traditional asset markets and tokenised assets highlights potential mispricing.

A wide gap has opened between how investors perceive crypto and what is unfolding on the ground, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan. He argues that the richest sources of alpha often stem from behavioural errors rather than fundamentals alone. He points to anchoring bias – the tendency to cling to initial impressions – as a recurring driver of mispricing in financial markets.

Hougan recalls that in 2018, many investors still associated crypto with the Silk Road scandal of 2013 and the Mt. Gox collapse of 2014, overlooking technological progress and broader potential because they remained mentally fixed on earlier failures. He suggests a similar pattern is visible today, with market participants anchored to outdated narratives despite mounting evidence of structural change.

Related: NYDIG Says Crypto’s “Investable Universe” Is Shrinking – and That’s a Good Thing

Capital Markets Begin the Shift

In July, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins introduced “Project Crypto”, describing it as a commission-wide effort to modernise securities regulation so that US markets can “move onchain”. In October, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the industry is at “the beginning of the tokenisation of all assets,” and the firm has since launched its BUIDL tokenised Treasury fund, which holds more than US$2 billion (AU$2.84 billion) in assets, on Uniswap. 

Apollo, which manages US$700 billion (AU$994 billion), has also tokenised its Diversified Credit Fund, attracting over US$100 million (AU$142 million) since January 2025.

Hougan notes that ETFs represent US$30 trillion (AU$42.6 trillion), global equities US$110 trillion (AU$156.2 trillion) and bonds US$145 trillion (AU$205.9 trillion), compared with roughly US$20 billion (AU$28.4 billion) in tokenised assets today. In his view, the disconnect between perception and reality is precisely where significant opportunity may lie.

Related: ECB Advances Digital Euro Plans, Targets 2027 Pilot Launch

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