Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley wants AI-displaced tech workers to consider crypto. He argues that the industry’s messy problems create the kind of opportunity ambitious engineers should chase.
The pitch arrived inside a broader Silicon Valley conversation about AI-driven job anxiety. Investors and founders are describing a workforce reshaped by automation, widening wealth divides, and questions about future careers.
Horsley Frames Crypto as the Pre-Mainstream OpenAI Bet
Horsley told tech employees their pragmatism is what crypto needs. He pointed to problems around financial freedom, access, and cutting out middle men. He compared the move to joining OpenAI before mainstream adoption was clear.
The Bitwise executive also acknowledged the industry has scams, messy projects, and shallow headlines. He argued those flaws are the opportunity for engineers willing to build.
Crypto roles offer competitive pay across engineering, protocol design, and product talent.
Big tech is moving on from needing you, and will be celebrating laying off talent. Fine. But crypto needs you. We need talented, professional, pragmatic people,” Horsley explained.
It aligns with a recent BeInCrypto report, which highlighted how TradFi giants were offering crypto talent stability and prestige as crypto firms cut staff. This is after JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Citi posted crypto roles recently, with base salaries reaching $300,000.
Banks are also demanding hybrid talent fluent in blockchain and TradFi compliance.
Wall Street’s Crypto Hiring Boom Comes as Layoffs Rock the Industry
“It’s really about domain overlap,” Bloomberg reported, citing Paul Przybylski, JPMorgan Asset Management’s global head of product for digital and tokenized assets.
Justin Sun Echoes the Career Reset
Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das described San Francisco as frenetic. Roughly 10,000 employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia have reached wealth above $20 million in five years. Meanwhile, AI-driven layoffs reshape the rest of the workforce.
The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I’ve ever seen.
Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people – employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders – have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope…
Asset manager Bitwise is set to launch an exchange-traded fund tracking Hyperliquid’s native HYPE token.
The ETF will start trading on May 15 under the ticker BHYP on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Capitalizing on Hyperliquid’s Growth and Dominance
Bitwise said that BHYP is the first HYPE ETF to use an in-house staking infrastructure, with the firm adding that the fund was designed to give investors a convenient and low-cost way to participate in Hyperliquid’s growth. Reacting to the development, Galaxy’s head of DeFi, Marc Antonio, wrote, “Damn Matt Hougan and Bitwise are cooking.”
DeFi Llama data shows that Hyperliquid makes up about 60% of global on-chain perpetual DEX open interest, with the network being capable of processing up to 200,000 orders per second while maintaining a strong reliability track record. Bitwise believes that because of this, the platform is on the road to becoming one of the biggest beneficiaries as capital markets continue moving on-chain.
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, said the chain proved its relevance during a period of geopolitical tensions earlier this year, when traditional markets were closed, and traders turned to it for price discovery.
“Hyperliquid has emerged as one of the most compelling investment opportunities in crypto today,” said Hougan.
Additionally, Hype has risen to become the tenth largest crypto asset in the world since launching two years ago, with a market cap of over $11 billion.
“Hyperliquid’s token is explicitly designed so that rising trading activity on the Hyperliquid platform directly benefits token holders. This has translated into historically strong returns,” he added.
Bitwise Shares Fees
The fund’s prospectus shows that BHYP carries a 0.34% sponsor fee, which Bitwise plans to waive for the first month on the first $500 million in assets. The company also clarified that the product hasn’t been registered as an investment firm, meaning it doesn’t have the same protections as ETFs and mutual funds.
Earlier in the week, 21Shares launched a similar product tracking HYPE dubbed THYP, which pulled about $1.8 million in trading volume on its first day, a feat described by analyst James Seyffart as “nothing too crazy.”
It has since racked up $7.42 million in cumulative net inflow, with data from SoSoValue showing that yesterday’s flow alone came in at nearly $5 million.
That puts a 1,150% increase as a 2031 target inside a market that is still trying to prove it can hold the $80,000 area.
CryptoSlate’sBitcoin page shows BTC near $80,200 on May 9, with a market capitalization near $1.61 trillion and an all-time high of $126,198 set on Oct. 6, 2025.
A move to $200,000, another price target being batted around lately, would require Bitcoin to rise roughly 2.5 times from that level. A move to $1 million would require roughly 12.5 times.
Bitcoin has produced larger percentage moves before, but the current forecast cycle now rests on a market question: whether the latest institutional demand is strong enough to absorb coins being sold into the rebound.
Bitcoin price chart showing projected Bitcoin cycle highs and pullbacks across multiple halving periods.
Why seven-figure math is back
The VanEck call lands alongside other seven-figure frameworks. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan laid out a formal $1 million model in March, arguing that Bitcoin can reach seven figures by gaining share as the store-of-value market expands.
In his model, the market grows to about $121 trillion over 10 years, and Bitcoin reaches $1 million if it captures about 17% of the total.
That is a different time horizon from Sigel’s reported five-year view, but the logic overlaps. Both depend less on a single trading catalyst and more on Bitcoin becoming a larger part of how institutions, advisers, sovereign entities, and younger investors think about long-term savings outside the fiat banking system.
VanEck’s own research desk had already published a longer-range version of that argument. In a 2024 Bitcoin 2050 scenario, the firm modeled a possible $2.9 million Bitcoin price by 2050 if BTC becomes a meaningful medium of exchange and reserve asset.
That report used assumptions around trade settlement, reserve holdings, and Bitcoin scaling infrastructure. The newly reported call is more immediate, but it comes from the same broad research posture: Bitcoin as a macro asset whose valuation depends on adoption beyond crypto-native buyers.
If the thesis is only a trading call, the next resistance level carries most of the weight. If the thesis is that adoption math, ETF flows, portfolio allocation, sovereign reserve behavior, and the size of the global store-of-value market carry more weight than a single weekly candle.
The near-term price frame is less clean. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee’s $200,000 to $250,000 Bitcoin range for 2026 should also be part of the conversation.
Prior CryptoSlate coverage had already placed Lee’s $200,000 forecast among a wide 2026 target set that also included more conservative and more aggressive institutional calls.
Arthur Hayes, the Maelstrom CIO and BitMEX co-founder, is cited as aiming for a shorter-term $125,000 target tied to liquidity and war-driven spending.
Together, those calls make Bitcoin look like it is re-entering a target-heavy phase. Hayes’ framework is macro-liquidity and event-driven. Lee’s is a 2026 market-cycle view.
Bitwise’s model is a store-of-value share calculation. VanEck’s reported call compresses a seven-figure outcome into roughly half a decade.
That difference should keep us grounded. A cluster of bullish forecasts can shift sentiment, but the market structure still has to carry the price there. The Fear and & Greed Index still sits firmly in the ‘fear’ category.
Recent CryptoSlate coverage framed Bitcoin’s rebound above $80,000 as a live test between seller supply and ETF demand. Long-term holders have been taking profits into strength, while spot Bitcoin ETF buyers have helped absorb supply.
That standoff is why the $90,000 area keeps appearing as the next upside test.
The bullish version is straightforward. If ETF demand continues to absorb coins from older holders, the low-$80,000 range could become a base rather than a ceiling. From there, a move toward $90,000 would provide the market with evidence that institutional access is doing real price-discovery work, rather than merely softening a rebound.
That would still leave $200,000 as a stretch target. It would, however, make six-figure 2026 targets easier to discuss without treating them as detached from traded demand.
A market that can hold $80,000, push through $90,000, and do it on broad spot demand would look more compatible with the Fundstrat-style bull case than a market that keeps rejecting the same supply zone.
The failure case is just as important. If ETF demand fades while long-term holders continue selling into rallies, the $1 million conversation becomes a long-horizon adoption argument rather than an explanation for the current price.
In that case, the five-year and 10-year targets can remain intellectually coherent while the 2026 market still struggles to escape its range.
That tension separates price targets from the evidence that would make them relevant now. Bitcoin can leave the $1 million debate unresolved for now. It needs to show whether the buyers who arrived through ETFs and institutional channels are still willing to absorb supply near levels that recently acted as resistance.
The practical threshold is therefore smaller than the largest target on the board. A clean $90,000 push would not validate seven-figure math, but it would show that the market can handle seller pressure while fresh capital still reaches spot Bitcoin products.
What would change the market signal next
Bitcoin needs to hold the low-$80,000 area and then attack $90,000 with enough spot demand to make the move look durable.
ETF flow data, long-term holder distribution, and any fresh confirmation of the VanEck comments will carry more weight than another round number from an executive or strategist.
The seven-figure targets are moving the debate away from whether Bitcoin can regain its 2025 high and toward whether the asset can claim a larger share of global savings. That is a much larger argument than a technical breakout, but it still needs the current market to cooperate.
For now, the credible takeaway is that institutional researchers are again willing to publish or defend seven-figure math while the market tests whether ETF-era demand can turn $80,000 from a stress point into a launch point.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had earlier approved Bitwise’s crypto index fund changes it had submitted. However, the federal agency swiftly stopped the process before it could be completed.
In a Tuesday, July 22 filing, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets took the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF through the approval process.
However, after several considerations, a US SEC Assistant Secretary, Sherry R. Haywood, stopped the process, pointing out that the commission would reconsider.
The SEC swiftly stops Bitwise’s crypto index fund approval process
In a letter, Haywood stated that, based on Rule 431 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, 17 CFR 201.431, the federal agency would reconsider Bitwise’s crypto index fund approval process. She then concluded that, following Rule 431(e), the order from July 22, 2025, is paused until the SEC decides differently.
On its website, the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund revealed significant investments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Polkadot, and others. Its investments in the digital assets are based on their market capitalization. Notably, the fund is trading with the ticker “BITW.”
In the meantime, the SEC’s pause on its decision is not the first time this month. A similar scenario occurred when the commission decided whether to change the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC.
Like Bitwise’s fund, this fund has also made significant investments in cryptocurrencies. It operates over the counter for qualified investors, with Bitcoin taking up around 80% of its total assets followed by Ethereum accounting for roughly 11%.
In addition to the two cryptocurrencies, the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund has invested in others, including SOL, ADA, and XRP, but at a very small percentage.
Concerning the SEC’s decision on the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund LLC, the commission agreed to Grayscale’s request to convert another of its closed-end funds into an ETF on an accelerated basis. Still, a day later it placed the order on hold. Grayscale has stated it continues to work with regulators to list.
This occurs during Trump’s crypto stance as the SEC examines several crypto ETF proposals, including those that follow SOL and DOGE.
Neither the Bitwise representative nor the SEC representative responded to a comment request.
SEC’s recent delays in its decision have sparked controversy among individuals
Scott Johnsson, a general partner at Van Buren Capital, and an ETF analyst, James Seyffart shared their thoughts in an X post on why the SEC implemented the halts.
Based on Johnsson’s argument, the SEC was aware that Democratic Caroline Crenshaw, who has doubts about cryptocurrencies, could further complicate things, or these issues would be added to the deadlines for both proposals.
He then shared an X post referring to both explanations as nonsense, arguing that they should not occur under SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
Seyffart fully supported Johnsson’s argument. In an X post, he anticipated that the SEC would continue delaying things until they devised a suitable plan. Seyffart sparked hope that the SEC is considering establishing a listing standard for crypto ETFs, which would speed up the process of getting those funds listed.
Under current rules, exchanges must file a 19b-4 form that initiates a review period that can take up to 240 days. However, reliable sources reveal that the suggested framework would shorten that timeline.
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