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We are closing in on the first trading day for spot Ethereum ETFs. Nine ETF funds launching including Bitwise's ETHW Fund, which closes the day out at $24.85 per share. And joining me now to discuss is Matt Hogan, Bitwise Asset Management, Chief Investment Officer. Matt, it is great to see you. So, let's start with these new ETFs, Matt. I'm just curious, what do you think demand is gonna be like, Matt, for these products? And where, where do you think the demand's gonna come from? Is it retail investors, RIAs, Matt, all the above?

Thanks for having me on. Great questions. We already know because we can see it in the trading volume that there's significant demand for these ETFs. Collectively, they traded more than a billion dollars, which is just probably the second largest ETF debut by trading volume in the history of ETFs. So there is significant demand. Where is it coming from? The initial demand into these ETFs is likely to be from retail investors and crypto native investors, but I do think there's strong demand from the financial advisor and RIA side. We've been speaking with that group for the past seven years, intensely for the past couple years, specifically about Ethereum. They're going to come into these ETFs eventually. So today's volume probably largely retail, but the professional investors are coming.

And for these new ether ETFs, Matt, how would you think about demand if you were to kind of compare and contrast it to the, to the spot Bitcoin ETFs?

Yeah, absolutely. We think demand will be on the range of 20 to 30% of the spot Bitcoin ETFs. ETH is of course about a third the size of Bitcoin. And if we look at other ETF markets abroad in Europe and Canada, that's what you see about 20 to 30%. But here's the thing, that sounds like not that much. But the Bitcoin ETFs were by far the largest ETF launch of all time, right? They brought in $17 billion of assets in just their first six months. If we see 20 to 30% of that flow into these Ethereum ETFs, it's a game changer for Ethereum. It shows that crypto is a major asset class and it's a huge win. So that's what I'm expecting, and this initial trading today suggests we're on the right track.

And, and Matt, you, you're offering one of these spot ether ETFs. You do have plenty of competition, Matt. I'm just curious, as you think about that, what are your competitive advantages in this space?

Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's a great group of competitors out there. But like we did in the Bitcoin ETF, where we competed with big names like BlackRock and Fidelity, but earned $2.7 billion in assets to this point, Bitwise differentiates itself by being a specialist crypto asset manager. We've been managing this market for seven years. We've been managing it through bull markets and bear markets alike. Whether the market's up, down, sideways, whether it's the weekday or the weekends, there's a team of professionals here at Bitwise that is studying this market and ready to answer investors' questions. Some people will go with the biggest names, but what we found out in Bitcoin is some people want a crypto specialist to manage their crypto investments. You wouldn't hire an equity manager to manage your bond portfolio. I think the same logic applies to crypto, and that's really where Bitwise differentiates itself.

And bottom line is for us, Matt, you're just for viewers who are listening right now, why, why would I want, you know, a spot ether ETF in my portfolio? Make the investment case, Matt.

Yeah, twofold. One, it's one of the most exciting technology platforms in the world today. I think if you're a tech investor and you own, let's say the Nasdaq Qs, you're missing part of the most exciting area of tech if you don't own Ethereum as well. That's where a huge amount of venture capital activity is going into, a huge amount of development activity. That's why it's up 1500% over the last five years. This is a very exciting growth area of the technology sector. But then even stepping back from that, this is a non-correlated asset. It has very low correlations to stocks and bonds. It's highly volatile, yes, but has high return potential. When you put non-correlated assets into an otherwise diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, usually good things happen. I think we're at the early days of crypto moving from the alternative space into the mainstream space. You can still be early in this market if you're getting in today, but that window will eventually close. So a very exciting time to be a crypto investor. I think a lot of people will consider it over the next six months.

Matt, always good to have you on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat. Appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.