Bitwise CIO says next bull run will be slower, less volatile

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at long-term Bitcoin bull Bitwise, predicted that the next cryptocurrency bull market will be slower and less volatile than previous cycles, he said in an interview with CoinDesk. This is due to investor attention being diverted to other hot trends like artificial intelligence (AI) and a shift in focus from Wall Street. Hougan noted that interest from U.S. Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and institutions in Bitcoin and the broader crypto space remains at an all-time high. He also maintained his existing forecast that Bitcoin will surpass $1 million within the next 10 years. However, he analyzed that during the current downturn, investors are turning their attention to more tangible and intuitive areas like stablecoins and Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization rather than just Bitcoin. The total market capitalization of stablecoins recently surpassed an all-time high of $322 billion, and Citi has projected this figure could reach $4 trillion by 2030. Hougan added that this institutional preference for assets linked to the real world could be a factor that slows the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market.