Bitwise’s chief investment officer thinks the next crypto bull run won’t be sparked by meme coins or speculative mania. It’ll be driven by something far less exciting on paper: real businesses generating real revenue, both onchain and off.

Matt Hougan singled out Hyperliquid and Robinhood as the two entities best positioned to bridge decentralized finance and traditional markets, arguing their convergence should lift flagship assets like Bitcoin and Ether along the way.

The Hyperliquid thesis

Hyperliquid has quietly become one of the most compelling stories in DeFi. The onchain perpetuals exchange has carved out a dominant position in decentralized derivatives trading, but what makes it interesting to institutional investors isn’t just volume. It’s the tokenomics.

The protocol directs 99% of its revenue toward buybacks and burns of its native HYPE token. In English: almost every dollar the platform earns goes directly toward reducing token supply, which is about as shareholder-friendly as crypto gets.

Hougan specifically referenced what he called the “Hyperliquid Lane” as a particularly promising investment corridor. And Bitwise is putting its money where its CIO’s mouth is. The firm launched the Hyperliquid ETF, ticker BHYP, on May 15, offering direct HYPE exposure alongside staking rewards of 0.34%.

That ETF launch coincided with broader acceptance of crypto-native assets in traditional investment wrappers. Multiple HYPE ETFs have collectively raised nearly $150 million in assets, suggesting that the appetite for exposure to revenue-generating DeFi protocols extends well beyond crypto-native investors.

Robinhood’s blockchain pivot

On the TradFi side, Robinhood has been making aggressive moves that go far beyond simply listing a few more tokens on its existing platform.

The company launched its Arbitrum-based Robinhood Chain on July 1, with the public mainnet achieving $450 million in total value locked and processing over 95 million transactions within just three weeks.

The chain offers tokenized stocks to customers in over 120 countries, effectively turning traditional equities into 24/7 tradeable onchain assets.

Hougan referred to this as the “Robinhood Lane,” a parallel investment thesis to Hyperliquid but approaching convergence from the opposite direction. Where Hyperliquid brings institutional-grade tokenomics to DeFi, Robinhood brings DeFi-grade accessibility to traditional finance.

HYPE is already listed on Robinhood’s platform alongside Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies, creating a direct connection between the two ecosystems Hougan is most bullish on.

Why this matters for Bitcoin and Ether

Hougan’s thesis rests on several converging trends. Stablecoins continue to expand as payment rails. Tokenized assets are reaching mainstream distribution through platforms like Robinhood Chain. Trading is moving toward 24/7 availability with instant settlement. And ETF flows into crypto products are improving after a period of tepid institutional interest.

For investors, the signal from Bitwise is fairly clear. Its decision to launch a dedicated Hyperliquid ETF, combined with Hougan’s public endorsement of the Robinhood convergence thesis, suggests Bitwise sees this TradFi-DeFi merger as the defining theme of the next market cycle. The early numbers—$450 million in TVL for Robinhood Chain, $150 million in HYPE ETF assets—suggest the market is already buying in.