Matt Hougan thinks Bitcoin’s (BTC) journey to becoming a mainstream asset class is a “multi-year story.”
Hougan, the chief investment officer (CIO) of Bitwise Asset Management, says in a new interview with CNBC that Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) figures in the first half of 2024 suggest “the birth of a new asset class.”
“I think the right analogy goes back to the original approval of gold ETFs in 2004. And what I find interesting there, what people forget, is that this was one of the most successful ETF launches of all time and $1.5 billion in revenue yielded. 2004. But guess what? In 2005 it did over $3 billion, in 2006 over $4 billion and in 2007 over $5 billion.
It kept growing year after year, and I don’t think people realize that with these Bitcoin ETFs. This was a huge first half, but I think the second half can be bigger, and I think next year can be bigger than that.
Hougan says that in 2004, gold was a “niche commodity” that was difficult to buy and did not appear in many mainstream portfolios.
The CIO also notes that Bitcoin ETF flows have been stable regardless of whether the price of BTC has gone up or down.
BTC is trading at $57,569 at the time of writing.
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