Buying a tokenized stock or ETF will not make investors rich from tokenization. Owning the networks behind it might. That is the view of Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who named Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink as the assets best placed to gain.
Why tokenized assets alone are not enough
In a recent interview, Hougan said tokenized assets do offer small advantages. They trade around the clock and are easier to borrow against. But a tokenized Tesla share is still a Tesla share, he said, and most of the return comes from the stock itself.
“If you as an investor want to benefit from tokenization, you have to own the infrastructure that makes it happen,” Hougan said.
The three altcoins he pointed to
- Ethereum and Solana: Hougan called these high-performance layer 1 networks the base on which tokenization is built.
- Chainlink: He compared a blockchain to a powerful spreadsheet on a computer with no internet. It can do the maths but cannot see stock prices, bond prices or currency values without a link to the outside world. Chainlink supplies that link.
He also said investors should look at companies building aggressively in the space. He described tokenization as a once-in-a-generation upgrade to the world’s financial system.
Why Chainlink stands out
Hougan estimated that Chainlink holds about 70% to 80% of the market for connecting blockchains to real-world data. If more real-world assets move on-chain, he said, nearly all of them will have to interact with it.
He put Chainlink’s valuation at roughly $6 billion to $7 billion, which he called “relatively small” for something that could underpin global markets for the next 30 to 50 years.
The interviewer noted that spot Chainlink ETFs, which began trading in December 2025, have not recorded a single week of net outflows despite weak market sentiment. Hougan said this shows “investors get it.”
What changes for ordinary investors
Hougan expects two big shifts over the next decade:
- Markets that never close: Trading will run 24 hours a day, all year, so investors can react to major events without waiting for Monday’s open.
- Loans for everyone: Borrowing against stocks is mostly available to wealthy brokerage clients today. DeFi protocols could offer the same service to any investor.
He also said tokenization could become the biggest financial inclusion tool ever, giving anyone with a mobile phone access to global investments.
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