Bitwise CIO names Hyperliquid and Robinhood as next bull-market catalysts
Bitwise also flagged Bitcoin “apparent demand” as re-accelerating using a dormant-supply-adjusted metric.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan is pitching the next crypto bull market as a TradFi-crypto convergence trade, with Hyperliquid and Robinhood as the two focal points. Separately, Bitwise research flagged a turn in Bitcoin “apparent demand,” a supply-adjusted proxy that the firm says is re-accelerating.
Key Takeaways
- Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan framed the next crypto bull market as being driven by TradFi integrations, with Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Robinhood (HOOD) singled out as the key names to watch.
- The same framework is positioned as broad beta: Hougan said the next cycle should be large enough to “lift most of the sector,” including majors like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
- Hyperliquid is already seeing substantial conventional-market activity, with Hougan saying nearly half its volume is tied to assets like oil, silver, and the S&P 500.
- Bitwise’s Andre Dragosch said Bitcoin “apparent demand” is “re-accelerating,” defined as newly mined BTC minus supply inactive for at least one year.
How Hougan thinks the next bull market lifts BTC, ETH, and SOL
Hougan’s pitch is a next-cycle catalyst framework, not a replay of prior drivers. He argued the next sustained upside impulse comes from traditional finance integrations that import crypto’s market-structure advantages into familiar venues, explicitly calling out 24/7 trading as a core benefit.
That matters for positioning because the thesis is not confined to a single-token narrative. Hougan said, “I suspect the coming bull market will be big enough to lift most of the sector,” and he added he is “bullish on the majors—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc.—and on crypto equities.” In desk terms, it reads like a convergence-led expansion in participation that expresses first through liquid majors and listed proxies, then bleeds outward if liquidity conditions cooperate.
Hougan also described Bitcoin as “finally showing signs of a bottom,” while leaving timing loose. The excerpt offered no hard indicators or dates, and it acknowledged the bear market could still have “several months or more” left, which keeps this firmly in catalyst-watching mode rather than confirmation.
Hyperliquid’s multi-asset push: conventional-asset volume and new product lanes
Hyperliquid is being framed as more than a crypto-only derivatives venue. Hougan said, “Today, nearly half the volume on Hyperliquid is in conventional assets like oil, silver, and the S&P 500. It’s expanding into spot commodities, prediction markets, and options.”
If accurate, that “nearly half” claim is the tell. It implies Hyperliquid’s growth is increasingly tied to cross-asset trading demand and not just crypto-native leverage cycles. The second-order effect is venue direction: multi-asset rails can pull in different liquidity profiles, different hedging flows, and a different cadence of catalysts than pure crypto listings.
Bitwise’s on-chain/flow check: Bitcoin “apparent demand” turns up
Bitwise paired the convergence narrative with a demand-side datapoint. Andre Dragosch, Bitwise’s European head of research, described Bitcoin apparent demand as “re-accelerating.”
The metric is defined here as newly mined BTC minus the amount of BTC supply that has been inactive for at least one year. Conceptually, it tries to net new issuance against long-dormant supply dynamics, which can matter when traders are debating whether price is being supported by fresh demand or just a lack of sellers.
What’s missing is the part traders can backtest. No numeric readings or time series were provided in the excerpt, so the claim functions as a directional signal rather than a quantified inflection.
Bitwise: Hyperliquid and Robinhood are the TradFi-onchain bridge to watch
Hougan’s core recommendation was explicit. He asked, “So how should you start positioning for the new bull market?” and answered: “By looking at two entities that are leading this convergence from opposite sides: Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Robinhood (HOOD).”
The Robinhood leg is framed as traditional finance competition building crypto infrastructure, with Hougan pointing to the “Robinhood Chain layer-2 network.” A layer-2 network is a system built on top of another chain to process transactions more cheaply or quickly while settling back to the base chain. In Hougan’s framing, that kind of buildout is a catalyst because it can broaden access and normalize onchain rails inside mainstream distribution.
How I'm Reading Bitwise: Hyperliquid and Robinhood to drive
I read this as a constructive convergence thesis that’s trying to name the marginal buyer for the next cycle. The argument is coherent: if Hyperliquid is already doing close to half its volume in conventional assets and Robinhood is building an L2, the bridge between TradFi flows and onchain venues stops being theoretical and starts looking like a product roadmap.
The threshold that matters is verification. If Hyperliquid publishes data that substantiates the “nearly half” conventional-asset share and that share holds or rises as new lanes (spot commodities, prediction markets, options) roll out, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven. Pair that with a quantified, sustained uptrend in Bitwise’s apparent-demand series, and the practical implication is simple: liquidity and participation would be expanding in the places that typically carry majors and crypto equities first.
