Bitwise Chief Investment Officer: Three reasons why investors should allocate ETH

Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer, Bitwise

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

According to Bloomberg ETF analysts, spot Ethereum ETP (Note: ETP is the abbreviation of Exchange-Traded Product, ETF is a type of ETP ) could launch as early as July 2. This means many investors will soon be faced with a new choice: whether to increase their exposure to ETH outside of their favorite Bitcoin ETPs.

I think the answer for most people is a simple: "Yes."

I will list three reasons to invest in ETH, and reasons why you may insist on investing only in Bitcoin.

Reason One: Diversified Investment

As an investor, one of the first things you have to learn is diversification. Don't own just one stock, own a basket of stocks; don't own just one bond, own a portfolio.

The most convincing reason is humility. As John Maynard Keynes famously said: "It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong."

The future is difficult to predict. Just ask the investors who bought AOL or Pets.com during the dot-com bubble. They were betting in the right direction—the Internet was going to grow! ——But the details were chosen wrong.

Cryptocurrency is a disruptive new technology. It can do a lot of amazing things, like move money at the speed of the internet. But today, even for experts, it’s hard to know exactly how cryptocurrencies will change the world.

So, unless you have a very specific point of view, all you should do is "embrace the market."

Today, the market capitalization of ETH, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is approximately $420 billion. That’s about a third of Bitcoin’s $1.3 trillion. So at the very least you should allocate 75% Bitcoin and 25% ETH.

Reason Two: Bitcoin and Ethereum Target Different Use Cases

The second reason is equally important: Bitcoin and Ethereum are two completely different things.

Bitcoin is a new type of currency. Every design choice in the Bitcoin ecosystem was made to make it the best form of money ever.

For example, the supply of Bitcoin is strictly limited to 21 million. This helps create a reliable monetary commodity. In contrast, other cryptoassets, including ETH, continue to see increases in issuance that can support other forms of network participation.

Another example: The Bitcoin blockchain rarely undergoes large-scale software upgrades. This reduces the possibility of developers introducing bugs. If you are building a new type of currency, security is critical.

In contrast, Ethereum undergoes major upgrades on a regular basis. This is because the main function of Ethereum is to make money programmable. It is a technology platform for decentralized applications. In other words, its strength lies in its versatility.

For example, you can digitize U.S. dollars on Ethereum and allow them to be transferred at the speed of light (we call this a "stablecoin"). Or you could digitize securities and allow them to be settled almost instantly (what we call “tokenization”). Or you could digitize the role of financial intermediaries and try to disrupt large parts of the traditional financial ecosystem (what we call “decentralized finance” or “smart contracts”).

Once again, the cryptocurrency revolution is still in its early stages. So it's hard to know exactly which apps will work long-term. Adding ETH to your portfolio simply gives you a broader view of what public blockchains can do.

Reason Three: Historical Analysis Shows You Should Invest in ETH

The third and final reason to add Ethereum to your cryptocurrency “basket” is “math.”

Historically, holding both ETH and ETH improves your absolute and risk-adjusted returns compared to holding only BTC.

The following table examines the market performance of a traditional portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds versus a portfolio holding 5% cryptocurrency over the past four years, with cryptocurrency investments divided into two scenarios: 1 , Only hold Bitcoin; 2. A combination of 75% BTC and 25% ETH.

Past performance does not guarantee future returns, but the table illustrates two points:

• 配置加密货币显著提高了投资组合的绝对收益和风险调整后的收益；
• 同时持有 BTC 和 ETH 比仅持有 BTC 拥有更高的绝对回报和风险调整回报。

由于多元化的优势，总体回报率更高，但最大回撤却更小。

数据统计时间为 2020 年 5 月 31 日至 2024 年 5 月 31 ；来源： Bitwise Asset Management 、彭博社

当然，你会发现，在短期内，将 ETH 添加到加密货币资产组合中会降低整体回报率。例如，自 2023 年 1 月 1 日以来， BTC 的表现优于 ETH 。这是因为在加密货币周期的早期阶段， BTC 的表现往往优于 ETH ，在更完整的周期时间段内进行评估则不一定。

例外：什么样的投资者应该只持有比特币

不过，我认为对某个特定群体的投资者来说，只持有比特币也是正确的。

如果你投资加密货币主要是因为担心法定货币（包括美元）的贬值，或者因为担心债务、赤字和通货膨胀，那么你应该坚持比特币。

尽管一些人并不同意，但我认为比特币很有可能成为加密货币领域出现的主导性新「货币」形式。它拥有巨大的领先优势，而市场规模是货币一个至关重要的属性。此外，它的设计、社区和精神都朝着实现这一目标的方向发展，而其他加密资产则在针对不同的目标进行优化。

这并不意味着我看跌 ETH 等其他加密资产。相反，我认为以太坊和其他网络应该面向其他设计目标，例如成为稳定币、去中心化金融和其他应用程序的平台。

我的观点是：如果你想在加密货币和区块链领域进行广泛投资，你应该拥有多种加密资产。如果你只是想投资一种新形式的数字货币，那就购买比特币。

结论

将加密货币投资重点放在比特币上的理由是相当充分的。它是最成熟、监管最严格、最有潜力的加密资产，而且它的目标是最大的目标市场。它也是最去中心化的，受政府干预最少的。正如我上面所讨论的，对于那些想用加密货币进行特定货币投资的人来说，只投资比特币是明智的。

但许多投资者只想投资「加密货币」和「公链」，对未来没有具体的看法。对于这些投资者来说，以太坊现货 ETF 的推出将为他们扩大加密货币投资提供机会，我认为这意义非凡。

The above is the detailed content of Bitwise Chief Investment Officer: Three reasons why investors should allocate ETH. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!