Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan is bullish on crypto assets outside Bitcoin (BTC), arguing that investors are underpricing tokens as protocols increasingly capture revenue, with valuations potentially doubling or more as the market catches up.
In a note published Wednesday, Hougan said crypto is moving beyond an era when successful networks generated substantial economic activity without returning much of that revenue to token holders.
"That era is over," Hougan said.
"We're now in a stage where, outside of Bitcoin, the value of crypto assets will increasingly be defined by the same metric that defines stocks and bonds: revenue." Hougan noted that the shift is increasingly visible across DeFi protocols and newer crypto projects that use fees and other revenue to buy back or burn their native tokens.
He pointed to Hyperliquid, which generated more than $800 million in revenue last year and used about 99% of its fee revenue to buy and burn HYPE.
