Bitwise: What other reasons are needed to buy BTC

Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise; Translated by: AIMan@Golden Finance

Earlier this month, I gave my closing speech on the first day of a national brokerage firm meeting. This is worth paying attention to in itself.

Four brokerage firms – Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and UBS – manage more than $10 trillion in client assets. Overall, these platforms have not yet allowed their consultants to easily access Bitcoin ETFs. But as I was invited to give a keynote speech, this is changing rapidly.

In fact, I suspect that all four brokerage firms will open their Bitcoin ETF business by the end of the year. This is one of the reasons why I still expect Bitcoin ETFs to set a record inflows this year, although it has only "only" inflows of $3.7 billion in 2025 to date compared to $35 billion in 2024.

But I am not writing this article to discuss brokerage firms. Instead, I want to share a story from an audience member.

"What can Bitcoin be left?"

The best part of the speech ends. You walk off the stage—hopefully to hear applause—and you are usually surrounded by a group of people who want to ask questions. These questions are the most valuable.

After this event, one person patiently waited for 20 to 30 people to take turns asking questions. After they finished asking, he said:

"I heard you and thought it made sense. But I just couldn't get over this hurdle."

This is a common sentiment. People understand Bitcoin’s logic rationally and find it attractive, but there is always something that prevents them from buying.

After exploring his concerns, we find that “thing”: he is worried about what would happen if everyone stopped believing in Bitcoin.

"How much will it be worth if the music stops?" he asked.

The answer is of course zero. If no one in the world wants to hold Bitcoin, its value is zero.

I pointed out that the same is true for gold and other assets, but he insists that the situation is different. He may be right. Gold at least has physical objects, and Bitcoin... nothing.

Honestly, I've had the same idea before, and I suspect most Bitcoin supporters are. The invisibility of Bitcoin is indeed a challenge.

My suggestion: Write it down

My new friend was about to leave and still looked very conflicted, when I asked him a simple question:

What other reasons are needed to buy BTC?

In other words, what does he need to see to believe that Bitcoin will last?

For some people, the way they answer this question makes them realize that they will never buy Bitcoin. If you are waiting for Bitcoin to be more accepted than gold... or waiting for its volatility to approach zero... you will never buy Bitcoin.

But if you don’t have these obstacles, it’s worth asking seriously: What other reasons are needed to buy BTC?

● Institutional Hosting? Today, listed companies like Coinbase and well-known brands like Fidelity are custodializing Bitcoin, with financial giants such as Bank of New York Mellon following.

● Institutional transactions? Today, Bitwise is trading with established companies such as Jane Street and Cumberland/DRW.

● Institutional adoption? Nine of the world's top ten hedge funds hold Bitcoin, including Emory University ($11 billion endowment), Texas Teacher Retirement System ($210 billion asset management scale), investment giants such as Ray Dalio and Stan Druckenmiller and many other institutions.

● Large asset management company? How about BlackRock and Invesco?

● Enterprise adoption? There are Strategy, Block, Tesla, and more than 80 listed companies.

● Convenient channel? There are ETFs now.

● Model adoption? BlackRock now recommends investors to allocate 2% of Bitcoin in their portfolio.

● Stable regulation? Market structure legislation is expected to be passed in Congress this year.

● The government adopts it? The United States is building strategic Bitcoin reserves.

Whatever it is, write it down. Because if we look back a few years ago, what we thought needed—such as the US government holding bitcoin or the world's largest asset managers accepting this—seems out of reach. But we have done it now.

My friend thought for a while, took a deep breath and said, “I want to buy bitcoin.”

I think many people will come to the same conclusion this year.