According to CryptoPotato, Matt Hougan, the CIO of crypto index fund and asset management firm Bitwise, believes inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will continue for years as more investors and institutions adopt the products. Hougan shared his experiences during a 20-day road trip, where he met financial advisors who have already allocated 3% of their client’s portfolios to Bitcoin ETFs and those who have not considered the products at all, highlighting a gap in the adoption pace.
Hougan also engaged with national account platforms approving Bitcoin ETF investments later this month and others looking to do so in mid-2025. He said his findings indicated that the inflows the ETF market has experienced in the past two months are not a one-time occurrence but part of long-term sustained demand. The Bitwise CIO insisted that the situation of most professional investors, who are currently unable to buy Bitcoin ETFs, would change in the next couple of years as they conduct a series of individual due diligence processes.
In addition, Hougan said the ramp-up of inflows into Bitcoin ETFs would be shorter than gold ETFs, which saw inflows built over their first seven years in the market. Market analysts think the former could surpass the latter within months if high inflows persist. Hougan also claimed that 3% is the new 1% in Bitcoin investment allocation. He explained that in his six years of speaking with professional investors about Bitcoin, the talks revolved around a 1% allocation. However, that has changed, as almost every wealth market investor he met on his road trip mentioned a 3% allocation as the ideal standard.
Hougan added that the primary reason for this shift is that the launch of ETFs has de-risked the downside of Bitcoin. Before, people were worried Bitcoin could go to zero, but if that possibility is off the table, 3% or 5% starts to make more sense. Meanwhile, Hougan discovered that the demand for Bitcoin ETFs from U.K. investors is far behind the surge in the U.S.