Bitwise says Finance 2.0 is arriving from the outside in, as tokenization, stablecoins and crypto ETFs start to rewire how savings and capital move around the world.
Summary
- Bitwise president Teddy Fusaro says blockchain is “10 times superior” to today’s financial infrastructure.
- Tether adviser Gabor Gurbacs argues tokenization and stablecoins are rebuilding capital markets from the ground up.
- Trillions in tokenized assets could sit on-chain within a “Finance 2.0” stack over the coming decade, Gurbacs says.
According to Bitwise, the future of the global money system is being openly challenged by some of the largest players in digital assets, who argue that blockchains and tokenization are now structurally better than the legacy pipes of finance. Bitwise president Teddy Fusaro said blockchain technology is “10 times superior” to existing financial infrastructure, even if its integration into mainstream markets remains in an early phase. His comments echo Tether adviser Gabor Gurbacs, who told Bitfinex Talks that his team is working with “large governments” and financial institutions to build a capital markets stack that lets countries “turn on finance 2.0” using tokenized assets and stablecoins.
Gurbacs, now CEO of Hadron by Tether, frames the opportunity in blunt numerical terms, pointing to an estimated $700 trillion-plus in global financial assets and more than $10 trillion in securities that could be tokenized over time. “We are building the infrastructure that will connect those markets to a more efficient and accessible future,” he said in a 2025 statement announcing a strategic deal with KraneShares to advance tokenized capital markets. In a separate interview, he stressed that 85% to 90% of the world’s population still lacks a mature capital markets stack and argued that tokenization plus stablecoins like USDT can “lower the barrier to entry” and let savers in places such as Argentina, Lebanon, or Turkey hold assets directly, without relying on fragile banks.
According to Gurbacs, the endgame is a world where “in 5 years from now basically you’ll be able to hold everything in one wallet on your phone,” from cash to stocks and bonds, with near-instant settlement replacing the legacy T+2 or T+3 cycles. That capital-efficiency push is already visible in crypto exchange-traded products: more than 2,000 US advisory firms now allocate to crypto ETPs, up from fewer than 200 before 2024, while custodians for these products secure an estimated 5% to 7% of all bitcoin in circulation. The rise of regulated spot bitcoin ETFs in the US has helped drive global ETF assets under management toward roughly $180 billion by mid-2025, with more than $120 billion tied to US-listed products alone, tightening the link between bitcoin demand, US monetary policy, and broader risk-asset cycles.
For traditional markets, the pivot is already forcing strategic responses. A report from Incrementum’s “Dollar Milkshake Meets Mar-a-Lago” argued that Washington is exploring dollar- and gold-linked instruments to preserve reserve-currency dominance while using tokenization and long-duration debt to manage rollover risk. As US 10-year Treasury yields hover around 4.4% and markets watch the 4.5% threshold that could further tighten financial conditions, analysts warn that risk assets, including bitcoin, will increasingly be priced off macro variables rather than crypto-specific narratives. In that environment, tokenized Treasuries, on-chain money markets, and spot bitcoin ETFs become not fringe experiments, but core pieces of what Fusaro described as a “10x better” financial system built on blockchains.
