Bitwise CIO Sees ‘Birth of a New Asset Class’ – NBC Los Angeles

Wall Street is preparing to welcome a new batch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds: ethereum.

Spot Ether ETFs could hit the market as early as this week, pending approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Bitwise Asset Management’s Matthew Hougan plans to get in on the action.

“What you’re seeing is kind of the birth of a new asset class,” the firm’s chief investment officer told the show.Advantage of ETFs” Monday.

Hougan’s company is applying for spot ether ETFs.

“If you want to invest in the growth of tokenization, Ethereum is like the pickaxe and shovel game,” Hougan said. “It underpins all of that. … I think it’s going to appeal to a lot of people.”

He believes that cryptocurrency ETFs as a whole are a multi-year story. Hougan refers to the first Bitcoin spot ETFs which was launched in January. He sees their success as a good indicator of the future.

“It is [bitcoin] “We’re going to go to the general public,” he noted. “It’s going to be a story that will last for several years.”

Bitcoin Spot ETFs have attracted about $15 billion since their launch and currently hold two of the largest ETF flows this year, according to FactSet.

Hougan views bitcoin’s recent success as unprecedented and sees it as a bullish indicator for spot ether ETFs.

“If we get $5, $10, $15 billion in the first two years of these Ethereum ETFs, that will be a huge success,” Hougan said.

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