Matt Hougan put two names at the top of his next-cycle watchlist: Hyperliquid and Robinhood. The Bitwise Chief Investment Officer laid out his thinking in the firm's latest weekly memo, arguing that the coming bull market will reward platforms where token value and real revenue are actually wired together, not just loosely associated.
Hougan's broader thesis is that financial services are migrating onto public, permissionless networks. Stablecoins, tokenization, 24/7 trading and near-instant settlement are the mechanics he expects to pull institutional money off the sidelines as firms move past early proof-of-concept projects. Bitwise still keeps Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana as the portfolio foundation, but Hougan is now adding weight to protocols and companies that already operate at scale. Early-stage experiments, he said, offer far weaker adoption signals.
Hyperliquid's revenue loop and what it means for HYPE
Hyperliquid is Hougan's pick on the crypto-native side. The Layer 1 network built its name on perpetual futures but has since pushed into commodities, equities and other traditional-asset markets. In June 2026 it crossed $1 billion in lifetime revenue, and Hougan's estimate puts full-year 2026 revenue at roughly $800 million. The number that really caught his attention is the token mechanic: 99% of platform revenue goes straight into open-market purchases of HYPE. That loop ties network usage directly to token demand in a way most DeFi projects still don't. While the broader crypto market has been shedding value, open interest on Hyperliquid L1 recently sat near $11 billion according to DeFiLlama, driven partly by rising real-world asset trading beyond crypto-only pairs.
Robinhood represents the TradFi-on-chain angle. The firm launched Robinhood Chain with stock tokens and DeFi access rolled out across more than 120 countries, a reach that most crypto-native platforms haven't come close to matching. For Hougan, that's the second investment lane: established financial companies building products that actually work on blockchain rails, not just announcing intentions.
He was careful not to call a confirmed bottom. Bitcoin has recovered since early July, ETF flows have turned positive and sentiment has shifted, but Hougan stopped short of declaring the cycle fully underway. The setup, in his reading, is favorable rather than certain. He also suggested other DeFi projects may copy Hyperliquid's revenue-to-token model as the cycle matures, which could make the structural link between platform activity and token demand a broader theme rather than a single-name story.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
