Financial advisors remain interested in crypto, but their attention is shifting away from Bitcoin-only conversations and toward stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain infrastructure, according to a new memo from Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan. After speaking with more than 40 advisors in a single day, Hougan said the strongest demand was for real-world crypto use cases rather than price-driven Bitcoin narratives.
The memo does not argue that advisors have abandoned Bitcoin. Instead, it points to a change in what is capturing institutional curiosity. Advisors are still asking about crypto, but they are increasingly focused on how blockchain technology is being used in payments, capital markets and asset issuance. Crypto is being evaluated more as financial infrastructure than as a single speculative asset class.
Stablecoins and Tokenization Take the Lead
Hougan wrote that it was difficult to engage advisors on Bitcoin during the week, because call after call moved toward stablecoins and tokenized assets. He attributed that shift partly to a cooling in the fiat-debasement trade, while stablecoins and tokenization have become recurring topics among regulators, bank executives and asset managers. The conversation has moved from digital gold to digital rails.
That shift is supported by broader market signals. Artemis data showed stablecoin mentions in SEC filings and investor presentations reaching roughly 1,000 in the first quarter of 2026, reflecting how often public companies and investors now discuss digital-dollar infrastructure. Stablecoins are no longer only a crypto trading tool; they are becoming a corporate finance and payments topic.
Institutional usage is also advancing beyond discussion. Fireblocks reported in its 2025 stablecoin survey that 49% of institutions were already using stablecoins for payments, with many others testing or planning implementation. That gives advisors a clearer real-world adoption story than previous cycles, when crypto interest was dominated by price appreciation and ETF access.
For advisors, the appeal is practical. Stablecoins can support cross-border payments, treasury movement, settlement and liquidity management, while tokenization can bring traditional assets onto programmable rails. Those use cases are easier to explain to clients as infrastructure improvements than as pure exposure to volatile tokens.
Infrastructure Assets Could Become the Next Focus
Hougan argued that if advisors become the marginal net buyers in the next crypto cycle, capital may first flow toward assets and companies connected to stablecoins and tokenization. He specifically said Ethereum, Solana, Canton, Chainlink, Avalanche and Hyperliquid came up in advisor conversations, along with companies such as Figure, Circle and Coinbase. The potential beneficiary set is wider than Bitcoin alone.
That does not mean capital has already moved. The memo documents advisor interest, not confirmed inflows into those assets or companies. Turning curiosity into allocation will require compliant vehicles, broker-dealer support, custody access, clear disclosures and regulatory confidence. Advisor attention is an early signal, not a completed deployment cycle.
The change also creates a different market narrative. The spot Bitcoin ETF era gave advisors a clean access product for Bitcoin exposure; stablecoins and tokenization require a more complex map of networks, issuers, oracles, custodians and public equities. The next advisory allocation thesis may be less about one asset and more about the financial plumbing around crypto.
For Bitcoin, the implication is not necessarily negative. Hougan still described Bitcoin near $60,000 as attractive for long-term investors, but his memo suggests the next wave of advisor education may begin with stablecoins and tokenized markets instead. Bitcoin may remain the anchor asset, while infrastructure becomes the conversation starter.
For now, the clean takeaway is that Bitwise is seeing financial advisors ask more about stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain infrastructure than Bitcoin’s price thesis. The next signal to watch is whether that attention turns into actual allocation through funds, equities, tokenized products and regulated settlement infrastructure.