Matt Hougan, head of investments at Bitwise, says many investors judge the crypto market by its current size rather than potential. He listed three principal mistakes that routinely skew investor expectations about the scope of crypto-based products and onchain activity.

Three main mistakes

Hougan highlighted recurring misconceptions that, in his view, distort valuation and strategic positioning across the industry.

• Viewing Uniswap, Hyperliquid and Aave only as crypto apps ignores that tokenization could unlock equity and bond markets worth hundreds of trillions.
• Underestimating crypto-native firms amid TradFi inflows ignores market share dynamics; for example, Tether and Circle still control about 88% of stablecoins.
• Downplaying future onchain activity overlooks that continuous 24/7 trading and development of AI agents could boost transaction volumes by tens of times.

Hougan’s assessment

Hougan's central observation is that investors tend to evaluate the industry by its present functions instead of its future capabilities. He warns that such a perspective can underprice long-term potential across tokenized markets, new settlement models and evolving onchain business models.

According to Hougan, reassessing assumptions about market reach and technical evolution is necessary for accurate valuation of crypto assets.