The Pomp Podcast
Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise Asset Management: Why Crypto Should be on Every Financial Advisors Radar
- Hunter Horsley's background at Instagram and Facebook informed his understanding of user experience friction, global scale, and the importance of building for mainstream adoption in crypto.
- Bitwise Asset Management targets financial advisors and high-net-worth individuals rather than retail traders, positioning crypto as infrastructure that fits into conventional wealth management workflows.
- Three primary reasons advisors are adopting crypto exposure: clients are already investing and pulling advisors in, portfolio mathematics show non-correlated returns improving risk-adjusted outcomes, and younger clients or wealth inheritees drive demand for crypto as a differentiator.
- Common objections to crypto—security/custody, volatility, regulatory bans, lack of utility, criminal use, geopolitical risk, and supply inflation—are addressed through institutional infrastructure, portfolio context, transparent ledgers, and network effects.
- Bitcoin and crypto represent nascent network technologies similar to iPhone or Facebook, not patentable IP; defensibility comes from network effects, not novel technical breakthroughs.
- A Bitcoin spot ETF would dramatically lower friction for institutional and advisory adoption by providing SEC-stamped due diligence and a familiar fund structure; prior novel asset classes (gold, bonds, leverage, non-transparent) took 2–9 years to gain ETF approval.