The Boring Strategy That Beat 96% of Fund Managers: Matt Hougan on Crypto’s Real Edge In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, to discuss why his “boring” long-term crypto strategy has outperformed 96% of professional fund managers, the 80/20 rule that guides his approach, and why the trillion-dollar institutional wave is only just beginning. @Matt_Hougan doesn’t fit the mould of a Wall Street quant. He studied philosophy and environmental science, not finance. He sees himself as “a dad, an entrepreneur, and a writer,” someone who clarifies his thinking through words more than mathematical analysis. Yet today, he helps steer more than $10 billion in client assets at @BitwiseInvest, a firm pioneering crypto index funds and ETFs for mainstream investors. His path into finance — from leading ETF,com to becoming a voice for crypto’s long-term fundamentals — reflects a deeper philosophy: real investing is less about flashy trades and more about discipline, patience, and focus. From Philosophy to Finance Hougan’s unconventional background is central to his worldview. As he puts it, “Most of philosophy is very hard to read. Your job is to distill complex things into something simple. That’s an extraordinary skill.” That training has served him well in crypto. He’s also quick to dismiss the idea that one’s major or alma mater determines their career trajectory. “I’ve hired maybe a hundred people. I’ve never looked at someone’s major, or even where they went to college. What matters is your ability to think clearly and work hard.” For Hougan, confidence and persistence, more than credentials, are what shape careers. The Discipline of Consistency That persistence has defined Bitwise’s journey. Over seven years, the firm has grown from a niche experiment into a major asset manager. Hougan credits consistency above all: “Ninety percent of what separates successful entrepreneurs from people who aren’t is just not stopping. Crypto has ups and downs, but if you believe the thesis — that crypto will matter more in the future than today — you just keep going.” This long-term conviction, even through brutal bear markets like 2018, has been his compass. It’s also why he warns against the most common mistake in crypto: chasing noise. Most investors, he argues, lose money not because crypto fails, but because they let short-term swings shake them out. “There was a Fidelity study that found the best-performing accounts were the ones where the investors were dead,” he jokes. The point is serious: the less you tinker, the better your odds. Why Trading Alphas Is a Myth Hougan is blunt about one of finance’s most enduring illusions — the idea that you can consistently beat the market by picking winners. “Trading alpha is a fake story. It’s virtually impossible.” In both stocks and crypto, a handful of traders will strike gold, but most will quietly fail. “You hear from the 10% who win, not the 90% who lose their shirts.” Even as Bitwise’s CIO, he doesn’t claim an edge in trading individual tokens. Instead, he believes the real alpha comes from behavioural insight, that is, seeing that the world systematically underestimates crypto’s long-term potential. ...