Bitwise CIO: Hyperliquid and Robinhood Will Drive Next Bitcoin Bull Market

Two platforms. One thesis. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan is betting that Hyperliquid and Robinhood will be the primary engines of the next cryptocurrency bull market, lifting both Bitcoin and Ether in the process.

"Hyperliquid and Robinhood TradFi ventures should form the basis for a crypto bull-market comeback that would lift Bitcoin and Ether."

Matt Hougan, CIO, Bitwise Asset Management

The argument centers on TradFi-DeFi convergence: the idea that as traditional finance infrastructure and decentralized finance rails merge, a new wave of capital enters crypto markets that previously had no accessible on-ramp. Hougan's framing positions Robinhood as the retail bridge and Hyperliquid as the decentralized infrastructure layer that together lower the friction between conventional investors and on-chain markets.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetuals exchange, a platform for trading futures contracts without a centralized intermediary. It has seen explosive growth over the past year. Robinhood, the commission-free brokerage, has steadily expanded its crypto derivatives offerings, giving tens of millions of existing retail accounts direct exposure to digital assets without requiring a separate crypto exchange account. Hougan's thesis treats these two as complementary: one captures the retail crowd already parked in traditional brokerage accounts, the other builds the decentralized plumbing that sophisticated traders increasingly prefer.

History gives the thesis grounding. The 2017 bull run accelerated sharply after the CME launched Bitcoin futures in December of that year, legitimizing BTC as a tradeable asset class for institutional desks. The 2020-2021 cycle was turbocharged by PayPal's integration of Bitcoin buying for its 300 million-plus user base, alongside corporate treasury purchases from MicroStrategy and Tesla. Each time, a new accessibility layer opened a previously excluded pool of capital. Hougan is effectively arguing that Robinhood's derivatives expansion and Hyperliquid's rise represent an analogous inflection point.

The counterarguments are real. Bitwise manages crypto ETFs and other digital asset products, meaning bullish market calls align directly with the firm's commercial interest in growing assets under management. Confirmation bias is an occupational hazard for asset managers making public market predictions. Beyond that, platform-level catalysts have never operated in a vacuum: the 2022 bear market erased trillions in value despite no shortage of new infrastructure launches. Interest rates, inflation, and the regulatory posture of the SEC and CFTC toward crypto derivatives all carry more weight than any single platform's user growth. There is also a structural question about Hyperliquid specifically: decentralized exchange volume growth may simply pull traders away from centralized venues rather than expanding total market participation. Volume redistribution is not the same as volume creation.

Still, the directional logic holds up. Robinhood reported 24.2 million funded accounts as of its most recent earnings, a pool of users who have already cleared KYC compliance and linked bank accounts. Converting even a fraction of that base into active crypto derivatives traders represents a meaningful demand increment. Hyperliquid has built a reputation for low latency and deep liquidity in perpetuals markets, attracting the kind of active traders who move price. If both platforms continue scaling simultaneously, the combined effect on order flow and price discovery could be substantial.

The broader market is watching this TradFi-DeFi convergence thesis play out in real time. Robinhood's crypto revenue has already become a material line item in its quarterly filings. Hyperliquid's open interest figures have repeatedly set records this year. Whether that translates into the kind of sustained bull market Hougan envisions depends on factors well outside either platform's control. But the infrastructure argument is the strongest version of the bull case available right now. Previous cycles rewarded investors who identified the accessibility catalyst early. Hougan is making the case that this time, the catalyst has two names.