What Would It Take?

By Matt Hougan | CIO, Bitwise Asset Management
April 30, 2025

Earlier this month, I gave the closing speech on Day 1 of a national wirehouse conference.
That in itself is notable.

The big four wirehouses – Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and UBS – control over $10 trillion in client assets. And by and large, these platforms have not yet allowed their advisors to easily access bitcoin ETFs. As my keynote invitation suggests, that’s changing fast.

In fact, I suspect all four wirehouses will be open for business on bitcoin ETFs by the end of the year. It’s one of the reasons I still expect bitcoin ETFs to set a new record for net inflows this year, despite pulling in “just” $3.7 billion so far in 2025, compared to $35 billion in 2024.

But I’m not writing this to make a point about wirehouses. Instead, I want to share a story about one person in the audience.

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