Crypto Investors Likely Underselling New SEC Stance’s Potential

According to Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise Asset Management, crypto investors are likely underestimating the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new, friendlier stance on cryptocurrency, suggesting significant price room for growth.

“The most bullish document I’ve read on crypto wasn’t written by some yahoo on Twitter. It was written by the chairman of the SEC.”

Hougan expressed surprise at SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s successor, Paul Atkins’, July 31 speech delivered at the America First Policy Institute. The speech outlined a vision for integrating blockchain into finance and catching investors off guard.

“I can’t imagine reading the speech and not wanting to allocate a significant portion of your capital to crypto, or … your career, if you work in finance,” he stated.

The crypto markets have seen significant gains since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, following the departure of former SEC Chair Gensler and the appointment of Atkins. Bitcoin reached new all-time highs thrice in the last five months, notably upon Gensler’s resignation and Atkins’ swearing-in.

Under Atkins’ leadership, the SEC has closed enforcement cases against crypto firms and initiated “Project Crypto” for regulatory clarity.

Hougan believes the market hasn’t fully grasped the implications of the shift. “I’m realizing I have to think bigger—and move to a faster timeline. If it wasn’t priced in for me, I’m going to guess it wasn’t priced in for others,” he noted.

SEC’s Paul Atkins Outlines a Pro-Blockchain Future

In his speech, Atkins discussed ensuring regulations foster, rather than hinder, on-chain market growth.

“It’s like the chairman of the SEC took all the best ideas crypto supporters have been promoting for the past decade and packaged them in a single speech,” observed Hougan, adding, “There’s a lot to unpack… you could build an entire venture capital firm around the chairman’s vision.”

Blockchain Integration and Super Apps Top SEC Vision

Hougan highlighted that the vision envisions transitioning all assets (stocks, bonds, dollars) to public blockchains and promoting innovative financial infrastructure like super apps.

He added, “If substantially all assets are going to move onto public blockchains, you want exposure to those blockchains.” He further speculated that one of the envisioned super-app companies could become the world’s largest financial services entity, potentially worth over a trillion dollars.

Clear Rules Could Boost DeFi Growth

Hougan also forecast that decentralized finance (DeFi) applications poised to benefit from a regulatory “friend-or-foe” shift and the merging of traditional and crypto markets. He cited the SEC chair’s speech explicitly acknowledging DeFi’s future role after years under a “hostile regulatory environment.” “Could these numbers rise by 10x? 50x? 100x?” became Hougan’s refrain.