- Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says Solana could be Wall Street’s go-to blockchain for stablecoins and tokenization.
- Ethereum remains dominant with over 60% of the stablecoin market, dwarfing Solana’s 4.7% share.
- Bitwise awaits SEC’s decision on its spot Solana ETF, due October 16, while Solana trades more than 20% off its all-time high.
Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer, Matt Hougan, is betting big on Solana. In a recent talk with Solana Labs’ Akshay Rajan, he said flat out, “Solana is the new Wall Street.” According to Hougan, traditional finance audiences often struggle to wrap their heads around Bitcoin—it feels too abstract, too hard to ground in something tangible. But stablecoins and tokenization? That’s different. They can see how these tools could reshape payments, stocks, bonds, even real estate. And when they ask which blockchain could power that shift, Solana’s speed and throughput stand out. Hougan pointed to recent improvements in settlement, dropping from 400 microseconds to just 150. That kind of speed, he said, makes sense to Wall Street because that’s exactly how they like to trade.
Ethereum Still Leads the Stablecoin Market
Even with the hype, Ethereum is far from losing its crown. Stablecoins on Solana have grown to around $13.9 billion, giving it about 4.7% of the market. But Ethereum still towers above with $172.5 billion in on-chain stablecoin value—holding close to 60% market share on its base layer alone. Add in Ethereum’s Layer-2 networks like Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon, and the share climbs past 65%. Offchain Labs’ AJ Warner recently commented that while Solana is exciting, the strongest ecosystem for new stablecoins still lies inside the Ethereum Virtual Machine. TVL numbers aren’t everything, he noted, but they tell a pretty clear story.
Bitwise Highlights Solana’s ETF and Staking Advantage
This isn’t the first time Bitwise has thrown weight behind Solana. CEO Hunter Horsley also spoke about it at Token2049 in Singapore, highlighting a unique advantage Solana could have over Ethereum in the staking ETF race. Solana’s unstaking period is much faster, which is crucial for ETFs since investors often expect to move funds quickly. Horsley argued this could give Solana the edge in attracting ETF demand, even as Ethereum remains the default choice for most institutions today.
SEC Decision Looms Over Spot Solana ETF
Bitwise already runs a product called the Bitwise Physical Solana ETP, backed one-to-one with actual SOL, but interest so far has been limited—just about $30 million under management, a drop compared to BTC or ETH-based funds. Still, the firm has its eyes on something bigger: a spot Solana ETF currently sitting in the SEC’s queue. A final decision is expected on October 16. At the time of writing, Solana was trading around $227, down 2% on the day and still more than 22% below its January 2025 peak. Whether the SEC gives the green light or not, Bitwise is clearly betting that Solana has a serious role to play in the next phase of Wall Street’s crypto adoption.
