Bitwise CIO sees tokenized stocks ending the slow email era of trading

Imagine sending an email on a Friday and having it arrive on Monday. In our modern world, that sounds absurd. 

Yet, in an interview with Sujal Jethwani, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan explained that this is exactly how the stock market operates today. 

When you buy a U.S. stock, it often takes days to actually settle into your account. 

"What is that true of in the world?" Hougan asks. "It’s a crazy idea. Why is the world working that way?"

This "slow email" problem is why the world's biggest financial leaders are pivoting toward tokenization. 

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Looking back at the momentum that began in late 2025, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink famously noted that we are at the "beginning of the tokenization of all assets." 

To Fink these tokens act like "digital deeds." 

They live on a blockchain, allowing for 24-hour markets and settlements that take seconds instead of days.

"Tokenization makes that not happen. It means we can settle things instantaneously, and importantly, it means we can cut out all the middlemen," Hougan points out.

Cutting out the middlemen

The current system is slow because it is crowded. 

A single stock trade often passes through seven different entities — like various custodians and banks — before it reaches its destination. 

Hougan explains that each stop acts like a "tax" on your money.

By using blockchain, the system "collapses," allowing money to move directly from person to person. 

The scale of this shift is staggering. 

Hougan informs the market for tokenized stocks is worth about $680 million approximately. However, the total U.S. stock market is a massive $68 trillion. 

SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins has predicted that the entire U.S. market will be on-chain within a few years—a 100,000x increase.

"The old saying is you’re not bullish enough," Hougan says regarding the Chair's prediction. 

If the market moves on-chain, Hougan believes the stablecoin market would need to be 20 times larger, and activity on blockchains like Ethereum and Solana would have to explode to support the volume. 

"One of the challenges in crypto right now is people are having trouble looking at something like Ethereum or Solana and using cash flow metrics to justify its valuation. But the thing they're missing is that the chairman of the SEC says it's going to 100,000x. If it 100,000x, that is a lot. It's just a very big number. I think it's going to happen in a couple of years," Hougan concludes.

For everyday investors, this means a future that is finally as fast as an email—and significantly cheaper.