Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley Says Busy Investors Are Crypto's 'Final Boss,' Not Price Or Regulation

Horsley said advisors are increasingly moving clients from self-custodied Bitcoin and Solana into ETFs.

• Horsley added that investor attention has become crypto's biggest adoption hurdle. 
• He said that Bitcoin's price needs to rise steadily rather than take a massive dip or significant surge, saying that a balanced market is more conducive to crypto adoption.
• Bitwise’s NEAR ETF has attracted more than $50 million in net inflows, while Horsley sees index products as an emerging bridge between AI and crypto.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said the biggest barrier to cryptocurrency adoption is no longer regulation or access. He said that investors are too busy.

"It has encountered sort of the final boss of reasons that people aren't doing something, which is they're just busy," Horsley said in an interview on Sunday with Wolf Of The All Street. Crypto spent ten years clearing the other hurdles, Horsley said. That included no exchanges, no qualified custodians and fears that the government would shut down the industry. 

According to him, the most common pushback Bitwise hears now is from advisors saying their clients aren't asking about crypto. Some advisors at large firms that approved Bitwise products more than a year ago still don't know they have access to Bitcoin (BTC), Horsley said. "That's almost hard to fathom," he said.

Why Bitcoin’s Price Needs A Sweet Spot

Horsley said rising prices help Bitwise’s sales but only up to a point, while adding that a falling market makes many investors wait to see if prices drop any further. A sudden run to $150,000 by the end of October would also make them pause, he said, because they would worry the market had overheated.

The ideal is "positive price performance, not too slow, not too fast, and not too high too quickly," Horsley said. He said the crypto sector is close to that now.

Bitcoin’s price traded near $85,200 on Sunday, up 0.5% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin remained in the ‘bearish’ zone as chatter around it dropped to ‘low’ from ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Advisors Swap Into ETFs

The CEO said a newer trend this year runs the other way from self-custody. He said advisors who once set clients up to hold spot Bitcoin or Solana (SOL) with a crypto custodian now want to swap these holdings into Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) shares. He said those swaps are due in the third quarter. "Peace of mind, simplicity is the order of the day," Horsley said.

Speaking on the regulation side, Horsley said that the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed crypto custody framework for registered investment advisors doesn't greatly change how advisors add crypto to portfolios.

He said that they would open the door for advisors to help clients hold stablecoin, use on-chain vaults, or own tokenized assets. He expects those uses to start showing up sometime next year. 

Bitwise’s NEAR ETF Gains Traction As AI-Crypto Narrative Builds

Bitwise launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR) on the New York Stock Exchange in late September. The fund drew more than 50 million in net inflows, according to the Near (NEAR) protocol.

Horsley said the fund is one of the first products that sits "squarely” at the intersection of AI and crypto. He said index products have lagged single-asset funds so far, but expects wealth managers to drive their growth.

"I think the story is just getting started on the index front," he said.

NEAR’s price was up over 3% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NEAR dropped to the ‘neutral’ zone from the ‘bullish’ zone over the past day, as chatter around it dropped to ‘normal’ from ‘high’ levels. 

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