Solana offers 'two ways to win' as stablecoin and tokenization bets align, Bitwise CIO says

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan outlined his investment thesis on Solana, stating that it offers two bets at once that mirror Bitcoin's appeal to long-term investors.

In a note to clients late Wednesday, Hougan made the comparison with bitcoin's dual bet on the $27.5 trillion store-of-value market — $25 trillion in gold and $2.5 trillion in bitcoin — explaining that bitcoin can rise either if the market itself grows or if it captures a larger share. He noted that doubling the market to $55 trillion would double bitcoin's value, even at its current 9% share, while doubling its share to 18% would have the same effect, even if the market remained flat.

With the store-of-value market having expanded tenfold over the past 20 years, he said another similar cycle — combined with bitcoin potentially matching gold's 50% share — could make each bitcoin worth $6.5 million, illustrating why such dual bets can be so powerful.

"The best crypto investments offer two ways to win," Hougan wrote, explaining that Solana stands to benefit from both the rapid expansion of the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market and its potential to capture a larger share of that ecosystem.

Making two bets at once

Hougan described the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market as being served by several leading Layer 1 blockchains, led by Ethereum, with the largest share of stablecoin issuance and trading volume and a leading share of fund tokenization. Solana, Tron, and BNB Chain are among the top challengers, collectively representing about $768 billion in market capitalization, he argued.

"While Solana is an important part of this market, it's relatively small at $107 billion, representing just 14% of the overall market. But that's also what makes it a good candidate for both bets," Hougan said, arguing that makes it a compelling "catch-up" play.

Suggesting that investors underestimate how transformative stablecoins and tokenized assets can become, Hougan expects "nearly all payments" to occur in stablecoins and "nearly all assets" to be tokenized over time.

"The blockchains that facilitate this growth will be extremely valuable. It's easy to imagine this market growing by 10x or more," he said.

Though Hougan remains bullish on Ethereum and other blockchains, he favors Solana's odds of winning a larger share of this market, citing the combination of its fast, user-friendly technology, strong developer community, and its traction in gaining institutional adoption.

Just this week, Western Union announced plans to launch a stablecoin on Solana in early 2026 — an example of that growing credibility, Hougan said.

Meanwhile, Bitwise's new U.S. spot Solana exchange-traded fund, BSOL, has drawn $116 million in net inflows over its first two trading days — marking the first U.S. spot Solana ETF with 100% direct exposure to SOL. Off the back of generating $57.9 million in trading volume on Tuesday — the most of any ETF first day launch this year — BSOL also saw nearly $75 million in volume on day two, which Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas called a "huge number."

"If I'm right, the combination of a growing market and a growing share of that market will be explosive for Solana. Just as with bitcoin," the Bitwise CIO concluded.