On April 30, Nate Geraci, the president of the ETF Store, rekindled the discussion about the future of Bitcoin with a question on X. He asked, “What would it take for you to believe that Bitcoin is here to stay?”
In echoing Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, he emphasized increasing institutions ripening in hedge funds and universities to BlackRock and Tesla along with the expansion of ETF access and adoption on the government level.
Hougan’s latest Bitwise report, titled “Q1 2025: The Best Worst Quarter in Crypto’s History,” — reflects the dichotomy of a bullish backdrop for the market despite falling prices.
Even after big wins — the U.S. instituting a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the SEC softening the regulatory grip — crypto markets tumbled: the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index declined by 18%, crypto equities by 27% and Ethereum by 45%.
Even as the cost of cryptocurrencies continues to tumble, the Bitwise report, dated Apr 16, points to substantial growth under the surface.
The value of stablecoins reached a record $218 billion, an increase of 13.5% from the previous quarter. The same was true for tokenized real-world assets, like digital versions of real estate or bonds, which surged more than 370%.
Interestingly, Hougan also predicted on April 30 that mainstream wealth management platforms such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, UBS and the like are supposed to fully open the Bitcoin ETF investment channel by the end of 2025, to free more than $10 trillion worth of potential investment intention, as per reports.
