Are Ethereum and Solana Useless for Tokenization? Bitwise CEO Shares Hot Take Amid RWA Boom

Cover image via youtu.be Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available. As the tokenization boom and a fundamental reassessment of the role of public blockchains go on, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley shared his "hot take" on the utility of Ethereum and Solana. Despite skepticism toward cryptocurrencies in the summer of 2026, the fund's chief mounted a forceful defense of the leading networks, calling doubts about the value of their native tokens a repetition of Wall Street's biggest historical mistakes. Advertisement The head of one of the largest crypto funds directly stated that the attempt to separate RWA infrastructure from the economic value of base-layer coins is simply the "2026 version of the 'blockchain, not Bitcoin' thesis". Bitwise CEO calls out the market's biggest mistake The industry has irreversibly entered an "on-chain versus off-chain" phase, and attempting to develop tokenized assets while denying the value of native tokens is an old mental error of the market, Horsley contends. HOT Stories Airbnb's Brian Chesky Breaks Silence on Crypto Hack Cash Cat (CASHCAT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH) and Stellar (XLM) Price Analysis for July 17: Recovery Phase Ends Abruptly 2026 version of "blockchain not bitcoin": I like tokenization and stablecoins, but I still don't see how Ethereum, Solana, etc are useful. Advertisement — Hunter Horsley (@HHorsley) July 17, 2026 Fresh data from analytics platform RWA.xyz clearly supports this position. The leading networks now effectively host nearly the entire global real-world asset infrastructure: Ethereum is the absolute leader , with $15.5 billion in distributed value across 915 projects. Solana ranks third, with $3.0 billion and already 707 active products. Any transactions, dividend distributions, or transfers of tokenized shares within these massive ecosystems are technically impossible without the use of ETH and SOL. The coins are spent on gas and secure the networks through staking, meaning their value is directly tied to the growth of the tokenization sector. Top-10 blockchain networks in total value of tokenized real-world assets, Source: rwa.xyz However, behind this public defense of the giants lies a pragmatic commercial interest and a bet on alternative infrastructure. Bitwise has its own favorite in this race — Hyperliquid. Advertisement You Might Also Like Fri, 07/17/2026 - 10:24 Coinbase CEO: S&P 500 Tokenization Will End Wall Street Monopoly By Gamza Khanzadaev While traditional on-chain tokenization remains stalled by compliance requirements, decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid , in whose development the fund has a direct interest, is demonstrating explosive expansion. According to the platform's latest reports, open interest in RWA derivatives on Hyperliquid has reached a record $3.6 billion. By this metric, the specialized blockchain alone has surpassed the entire spot RWA market on Solana, valued at $3.0 billion, while the exchange's total open interest has reached an all-time high of $11 billion. By defending the economics of ETH and SOL against superficial interpretations, Bitwise is skillfully directing investor attention toward more flexible infrastructure solutions, and the fund's capital structure shows that Hyperliquid is becoming their primary instrument for extracting maximum value from the changing structure of the crypto market. #Hunter Horsley #Bitwise #Ethereum #Solana #Tokenization #RWA