00:00Ryan, just talk us through why now, why come up with this new product and who does it serve?
00:07Look, great to be here with you again, Scarlett, and talk about this. Bitwise is really excited
00:11to pioneer a new way for investors to gain exposure to crypto and now equities on blockchain-based
00:18rails. As you mentioned today, we launched automated token portfolios, which are model
00:24portfolios available to investors, replicating strategies designed by Bitwise and available in
00:31their crypto wallets. The reason why we're launching these today is because the infrastructure
00:36and the regulatory environment are both in the right place for the first time in crypto's history
00:41for these types of products to come to market. And we're really excited to bring these to investors
00:47today. Okay, you mentioned infrastructure and the regulatory environment. What about demand?
00:53Look, I think demand is going to be very strong for ATPs. Of course, these are a new innovation.
00:59What we've seen in the history of asset management is that you have these new types of fund structure
01:05or investment structures that first start small and then see tremendous growth. We saw it when we
01:11had mutual funds disrupted by ETFs. They've now grown into a $30 trillion industry over the past 30 years.
01:17We think ATPs are the next evolution of ETFs. They're faster. They're more accessible. They provide
01:25for more personalization and more access. And so we believe this is growing over time into a
01:31multi-trillion dollar market. But of course, it's early on. The entire move of traditional markets
01:36onto blockchain-based rails with tokenization is just getting started. We think this is going to be a
01:43massive megatrend and tailwind in the crypto industry for decades to come.
01:48You've been on Bloomberg before, Ryan, saying that investors need off-chain assets like crypto
01:52equities to capture the full upside of everything that's happening in the crypto universe. Crypto
01:58equities returned 23% in the first half, while tokens themselves lost about 36% of their value. So
02:03at what point does the data just say, buy the stocks and you can pretty much skip the tokens?
02:07Yes, Scarlett, that's a great question. I think that points to the ever-evolving
02:12crypto market that we find ourselves in. It used to be that crypto and crypto equities
02:18kind of all moved in tandem. But what we're seeing today is that crypto equities, which are the
02:24publicly traded crypto companies, building the infrastructure and providing the services
02:28that service the crypto industry, they're moving a bit different, being driven more by
02:34idiosyncratic developments at the company level, by the financial profiles of these companies,
02:40whereas digital assets are driven more by technical developments, the regulatory environment,
02:45which I know you've spoken about a lot today, and other drivers. So they're driven by slightly
02:50different catalysts. I think ultimately, you know, the tide is moving in the same direction and
02:56investors that we speak to a bit wise, which we speak to, you know, investors every single day,
03:01want exposure to the broad crypto spectrum in portfolios that give exposure to equities
03:08and crypto assets. So I think investors want exposure to both of these things over the long
03:13term. So what's the case then for owning the underlying crypto when companies both on top of
03:17it are massively outperforming? Well, there's been periods in crypto's history, Tim, where the crypto
03:22assets have outperformed the crypto equities. It's like different thematic portfolios outperforming
03:29others. Maybe the last week, for example. Yeah, the last week's a great example. We've had a massive
03:34rally in crypto assets. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Hyperliquid have massively outperformed over the past
03:41week and are catching up to crypto equities. But that's the dynamic we're seeing here in this ever
03:46evolving market is you have different drivers and different performance profiles. And so investors
03:50who want exposure to the entire crypto stack can get that in crypto equities and crypto assets.
03:57Ryan, tokenized real world assets just hit a record $33 billion, a pretty big number. And you've called
04:04this the next big wave. You're not the only one. Others in the industry have as well. But I look
04:08at
04:08what's going on in your firm. Bitwise just cut 14 percent of staff. So a skeptic might ask if the
04:13thesis
04:14is that strong, why is your firm not growing and instead perhaps shrinking? Look, Bitwise has grown
04:20tremendously this year. We saw two billion of inflows into our products across the stack in the first half of
04:26this year. We're expecting billions more through the end of this year. I think as all startups do and
04:31all, you know, fast moving companies, too, we're positioning ourselves prudently for the future. And
04:37we believe this wave of assets moving on chain. You mentioned 30 billion in tokenized assets on chain
04:43today. Three billion of that is stocks. The rest are other assets like bonds. And we think this stock
04:49movement of traditional assets, traditional equities on blockchains is going to be the next
04:54massive leg up. And it's not just as you mentioned. The largest financial institutions in the world are
05:00talking about this. Regulators at the SEC and CFTC have made this a main priority. The president
05:05mentioned this in his speech last week. All signals point to traditional assets moving on chain. And
05:11Bitwise has been around for 10 years. We've been pioneering ways for investors to access crypto
05:16products and crypto strategies since then, starting with index ETFs, then spot ETFs. And today,
05:23ATPs. We're excited to be here for investors through this next bull market.
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