Ethereum and Solana Vital for Tokenization, Says Bitwise CEO Amid RWA Boom

The tokenization boom is underway, and it's forcing investors to reevaluate the role of public blockchains. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley has shared his 'hot take' on the utility of Ethereum and Solana, calling out doubts about the value of their native tokens as a repetition of Wall Street's biggest historical mistakes.

Horsley compared this skepticism to the 'blockchain, not Bitcoin' thesis, saying that attempting to develop tokenized assets while denying the value of native tokens is an old mental error. He believes that the industry has irreversibly entered an 'on-chain versus off-chain' phase and that native tokens are essential for securing networks through staking.

Fresh data from RWA.xyz supports this position, showing that Ethereum hosts nearly $15.5 billion in distributed value across 915 projects, while Solana ranks third with $3.0 billion and already 707 active products. The coins are spent on gas and secure the networks, meaning their value is directly tied to the growth of the tokenization sector.

Behind Horsley's defense of ETH and SOL lies a pragmatic commercial interest and a bet on alternative infrastructure. Bitwise has its own favorite in this race, Hyperliquid. The decentralized trading platform, in whose development the fund has a direct interest, is demonstrating explosive expansion with open interest in RWA derivatives reaching $3.6 billion.