Bitwise CIO: AI Agents and Asset Tokenization Could Drive 50-100x Growth in Blockchain Transaction Volume

Odaily News, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Matt Hougan stated that the market may be significantly underestimating the scale of future blockchain trading activity. As real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and AI agents reshape financial markets, on-chain transaction volume could potentially grow 50x or even 100x in the future.

In his latest investment memo, Hougan pointed out that crypto investors currently hold three major misconceptions, one of which is underestimating the future reach of blockchain applications. He believes that bringing traditional assets on-chain and AI agents participating in trading will significantly boost on-chain activity. The tokenized stock market alone could bring a 10x increase in trading volume. He noted that traditional stock markets are typically only open from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time on weekdays, offering roughly 33 trading hours per week. In contrast, tokenized stocks enable 24/7 trading, expanding available trading hours to 168 hours per week. If AI agents are later deployed to automatically execute trades on behalf of investors, trading frequency could increase even further.

However, Hougan also acknowledged that increased trading hours do not necessarily translate into proportional volume growth, but AI and automated trading could become key drivers of on-chain activity expansion. Investors are currently still valuing related platforms based on the existing scale of the crypto market, overlooking the potential market expansion brought by tokenization. For instance, the decentralized exchange Uniswap could one day expand its services from crypto assets to traditional asset markets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. (The Block)