Bitwise cut 14% of staff, bringing headcount to ~155. The $9B manager's Bitcoin ETF holds $2.3B as industry concentration grows. CIO sees bottom as Coldcard exploit boosts ETF case.
Bitwise Asset Management cut roughly 14% of its staff, reducing the San Francisco firm to about 155 people from around 180, the company confirmed to Bloomberg.
Chief executive Hunter Horsley framed the reduction against a longer arc. Even after the cuts the workforce is the largest in the company's eight-year history, he told the outlet, and he expects growth to continue as crypto is absorbed into the wider economy.
The firm manages about $9 billion in client assets across more than 70 investment products, from Bitcoin ETFs to hedge fund strategies, its website shows. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold about $77.5 billion in net assets, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock's IBIT accounts for roughly $47.3 billion and Fidelity's FBTC another $10.9 billion. Bitwise's own fund holds about $2.3 billion, under 3% of the total. Bitcoin has fallen close to half from the record it set in October 2025 to around $64,000, in a slump now running about 10 months.
Bitwise joins a lengthening list of crypto firms laying off staff. Coinbase cut its workforce by 14% in May as CEO Brian Armstrong cited both the market and the speed at which AI had changed how the company works. Prime broker FalconX cut about 10% of its staff at the start of August, with roughly half its Singapore office let go, and is withdrawing a license application in the city-state to concentrate on derivatives.
Two exchanges have gone further and quit outright. BitMEX, which invented the perpetual swap in 2016, said last month it will close on September 23 after more than 11 years. BitMart followed days later, winding down a nine-year-old platform and sending its token lower.
The retail investors who once drove the crypto market are shifting to sports-betting platforms and AI stocks. CoinGecko's second-quarter report showed prediction market volume rose 48.7% to a record $113.8 billion over the three months. Over the same period, spot volume across the ten largest centralized exchanges fell 27.9% to $1.95 trillion and total crypto market capitalization dropped 12.6%. Barclays analysts have called prediction markets "retail's shiny new toy." A Wintermute report drawing on JPMorgan data found speculative money rotating steadily into equities since late 2024.
Bitwise's own executives remain bullish on crypto's prospects, despite the layoffs. Chief investment officer Matt Hougan told Bloomberg television this week that the market may be at the bottom of its winter. He argued that the Coldcard exploit, which has drained more than $100 million from self-custody wallets, strengthens the case for holding Bitcoin through an ETF instead.
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