{"id":58474,"date":"2025-11-14T07:01:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T07:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=58474"},"modified":"2025-11-14T07:01:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T07:01:33","slug":"coinbase-just-triggered-a-major-crypto-turning-point-bitwise-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=58474","title":{"rendered":"Coinbase Just Triggered A Major Crypto Turning Point, Bitwise Warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says crypto may have just crossed into a new structural era\u2014and he argues that Coinbase is the catalyst. In a November 11 memo titled \u201cThe Next Big Disruption From Crypto,\u201d Hougan writes that he \u201ccaught a glimpse of the future this week,\u201d identifying a fourth major crypto-driven disruption: capital formation.<\/p>\n

Hougan frames the development within his long-running meta thesis that crypto is \u201cgoing to reinvent the fundamental aspects of finance.\u201d He highlights Bitcoin as \u201creinventing gold,\u201d stablecoins as \u201creinventing dollars,\u201d and tokenization as \u201creinventing trading and settlement.\u201d He stresses that crypto remains early in each cycle but says the endgame is already visible: \u201cI expect that eventually most assets will be tokenized, most dollars will move on stablecoin rails, and bitcoin will be as widely accepted as gold<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

What changed this week, he argues<\/a>, is the emergence of a viable, institutionalized ICO model. \u201cWe added a fourth category: capital formation,\u201d Hougan writes. \u201cI think it will be a defining theme of crypto in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make that case, Hougan revisits the traditional IPO market\u2014one he describes as \u201csclerotic and heavily skewed against individual investors.\u201d Institutions fund VCs, VCs fund the best startups, startups stay private for years, and retail is left with scraps at the end. \u201cRetail only gets to participate at the end of the journey,\u201d he writes, in a system weighed down by \u201cseemingly infinite regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Crypto Plot Twist: Coinbase Revives ICOs<\/h2>\n

Crypto attempted to break this pattern once before. \u201cIt was\u2014let\u2019s be honest here\u2014a complete disaster,\u201d he says about the 2017\u20132018 ICO boom<\/a>. \u201cThe vast majority of ICOs turned out to be scams.\u201d With no guardrails, \u201ccharlatans raised billions from the unsuspecting public,\u201d eventually forcing the SEC to intervene. \u201cIts massive crackdown in 2018 destroyed the ICO trend and drove crypto into a deep bear market.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hougan insists the failure masked an underlying truth. \u201cAs bad as ICOs were, they did prove something interesting: Crypto could be used to raise capital rapidly for new projects.\u201d ICOs showed a model that was \u201clower-cost, faster, and more egalitarian\u201d than IPOs, even if the execution was fatally flawed.<\/p>\n

The difference today, he argues, is regulatory intent and institutional architecture. Hougan highlights SEC Chairman Paul Atkins<\/a>\u2014formerly co-chair of the Token Alliance and a board member at Securitize\u2014as a driving force behind new thinking. In July, Atkins called for \u201cnew regulations and safe harbors that would allow high-quality ICOs to happen.\u201d According to Hougan, Atkins argued that \u201cif we can fix what went wrong with ICOs 1.0, we could see a boom in new capital formation\u2014all led by crypto.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the backdrop for Coinbase\u2019s move. \u201cOn Monday, Coinbase took the first major step toward making this a reality,\u201d Hougan writes. Coinbase unveiled a new platform that will launch one \u201cfully-vetted\u201d token sale per month, with enforced team disclosures, mandatory lockups for insiders, and a standardized screening process.
\n\u201cIn short,\u201d Hougan says, \u201cthrough self-regulation, it aims to fix a lot of what was wrong with the 2017-2018 ICO era.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is explicit about where he thinks this goes: \u201cI bet we\u2019ll see a half-dozen or more billion-dollar ICOs through platforms like Coinbase in 2026.\u201d While still small relative to the traditional IPO market\u2014\u201c176 IPOs in the US raised $33 billion in 2024\u201d\u2014Hougan argues that even a handful of successful ICOs would prove a structural point: \u201cEntrepreneurs can raise capital directly from investors, often at better terms than they would in the traditional IPO market.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the investment side, Hougan points first to Coinbase itself. \u201cThe obvious investment is in Coinbase,\u201d he writes, describing the company not just as a brokerage but a multi-lane financial infrastructure giant: \u201cIt\u2019s not just the Charles Schwab of Crypto; it\u2019s Charles Schwab + Goldman Sachs + NYSE + \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He also sees upside for base-layer ecosystems: \u201cA healthy ICO market will bode well for the largest programmable blockchains, like Ethereum and Solana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the larger thesis is index-level. \u201cAn ICO renaissance,\u201d he writes, \u201cis another major proof point for crypto as a whole.\u201d Crypto\u2019s narrative grew stronger as stablecoins and tokenization matured; billions raised through vetted ICOs would strengthen it further. His advice: \u201cDon\u2019t try to pick the horse; bet on the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $3.42 trillion.<\/p>\n

\"Total<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says crypto may have just crossed into a new structural era\u2014and he argues that Coinbase is the catalyst. In a November 11 memo titled \u201cThe Next Big Disruption From Crypto,\u201d Hougan writes that he \u201ccaught a glimpse of the future this week,\u201d identifying a fourth major crypto-driven disruption: capital formation. Hougan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-58474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}