Bitwise CIO Claims Crypto Winter Began in 2025—Now the Question Is When It Ends

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Bitwise Asset Management, said the market is experiencing a crypto winter. According to his analysis, the crypto winter began in January 2025, but heavy institutional inflows “papered over that truth,” masking the depth of the downturn. The key question now is, how long will the winter last? Market Weakness Signals an Ongoing Crypto Winter In a recent market commentary, Hougan rejected the idea that recent price weakness represents a temporary pullback. Instead, he described the current environment as a “full-blown crypto winter,” pointing to steep drawdowns across major assets. He highlighted that Bitcoin (BTC) is now trading about 39% down from its October 2025 all-time high. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) has fallen roughly 53%. Many altcoins have declined far more. “This is not a ‘bull market correction’ or ‘a dip.’ It is a full-bore, 2022-like, Leonardo-DiCaprio-in-The-Revenant-style crypto winter—set into motion by factors ranging from excess leverage to widespread profit-taking by OGs,” Hougan noted. Institutional demand, he said, played a key role in masking the downturn. Using data from the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index, Hougan highlighted a clear divide. Assets with strong institutional support, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP (XRP), have posted relatively modest declines since January 2025. Tokens that gained ETF access in 2025, like Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), and Litecoin (LTC), suffered deeper losses. Nonetheless, assets without any institutional exposure fell between roughly 60% and 75%. According to him, “The thing that separates the three groups is basically whether or not institutions had the ability to invest in them.” Major Crypto Token Performances in 2025. Source: X/Matt Hougan During this period, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT) accumulated more than 744,000 Bitcoin, worth an estimated $75 billion. Hougan argued that without this level of institutional suppo...