Hyperliquid, Robinhood expand on-chain finance; bitcoin gains

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan wrote in a July 22 market commentary that bitcoin had climbed about 9% since July 1 while the Nasdaq-100 fell roughly 6%. He noted growing ETF inflows and improved sentiment but cautioned the market has not posted a confirmed bottom.

Hougan attributed recent price moves and sentiment to a shift toward stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain-based financial markets. He described the next cycle as focused on faster settlement, continuous trading hours and larger institutional-scale decentralized finance. “The next crypto bull market will be about stablecoins, tokenization, 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and institutional DeFi scaling to the trillions,” he wrote.

Hougan highlighted two firms that illustrate different paths to on-chain finance. Hyperliquid is a Layer 1 blockchain that began with perpetual futures trading and expanded to offer traditional assets such as oil, silver and stock indexes; he said nearly half of Hyperliquid’s volume now comes from those traditional assets and pointed to the platform’s revenue model and token buybacks. On the traditional finance side, Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain on July 1 to support tokenized stocks and decentralized finance services, moving from pilots to live products.

He listed BlackRock, Coinbase, Figure, Visa, Stripe and JPMorgan among large financial firms and infrastructure providers exploring similar blockchain services. He identified two categories he expects may benefit if blockchain-based finance broadens: crypto applications that already generate revenue and established companies building blockchain financial products.

Hougan wrote that strong demand for bitcoin exchange-traded funds could affect available supply, as more investors gain exposure through traditional channels. He also said geopolitical uncertainty could increase interest in bitcoin as a global asset.

Hougan reiterated that practical financial use cases will drive adoption and urged investors to focus on projects and firms that produce operating financial products rather than experiments. He warned sentiment can change and that a confirmed market bottom has not yet been reached.