Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, argues that crypto is creating a new wealthy elite - one that thinks, spends, ...
What Hunter Horsley said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, argued that crypto is creating a new wealthy elite class that will reshape society. He framed this as part of a historical pattern of change, comparing it to the railroad barons of the 19th century who built fortunes and influenced the world. Horsley cited early signs of this class's distinct preferences, such as the crypto community buying NFTs like punks, apes, or Pudgy Penguins for $20,000, contrasting with traditional art buyers. He also highlighted the crypto industry's political influence in the 2024 US elections, noting that Fairshake identified 34 congressional candidates, all of whom won, including Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania and Bernie Moreno in Ohio. Horsley estimated the crypto market at about $4 trillion today and mentioned that luxury brands like Hermès are sensing this shift through NFT projects. He predicted this dynamic will manifest more over the next decade.
Key takeaways
Crypto is creating a new wealthy elite class that will influence the world with different values and preferences.
The crypto industry spent more money in the 2024 US elections than any other industry, and all 34 Fairshake-backed candidates won.
The crypto market is about $4 trillion today, and luxury brands like Hermès are already adapting to crypto wealth.
Crypto owners will be endowed with substantial resources, similar to the railroad barons of the 19th century.
The crypto community's art preferences, like buying NFTs for $20,000, show a different view on value compared to traditional art.
Well, the conversation around the coffee in Singapore that you mentioned before, and something that you came up with was something I really hadn't thought about too much, but I think you think about it a lot. Which is that and I think most people don't realize it either, which is that crypto is creating a new wealthy elite class.
There's so much that's exciting about crypto. And this is one of the most exciting dimensions to me. I want to zoom way out and introduce to the thought space of this conversation that the only thing that has been consistently true in this world is that it constantly changes. 300 years ago, when the pilgrims first came to America, it was a class of poor rejects. 300 years later, it is the richest, most powerful nation in the world. That's a change. We can talk about other storylines in America, the Industrial Revolution, electricity, so many things. But I want to establish as a premise that it is not the case that God created the universe or the Big Bang created the universe and we finally arrived at the permanent non-changing destination. That is absolutely unlikely. What is much more likely is that we're in the middle of a perpetual cycle of change and journey.
And so if you accept that assertion, then things will look different in 20 years. The question is how will they look different? We can talk about crypto being adopted as an asset class and technology, and I believe that will be an important change. As a byproduct, the owners of crypto will be endowed with substantial resources.
Horsley, H. (2026, July 6). Bitwise CEO: How Crypto Is Creating the Next Generation of the Ultra-Wealthy - Hunter Horsley [Interview transcript]. When Shift Happens. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1065313/
MLA
Hunter Horsley. "Bitwise CEO: How Crypto Is Creating the Next Generation of the Ultra-Wealthy - Hunter Horsley." When Shift Happens, 6 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1065313/.
BibTeX
@misc{horsley2026_1065313,
author = {Hunter Horsley},
title = {Bitwise CEO: How Crypto Is Creating the Next Generation of the Ultra-Wealthy - Hunter Horsley},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, When Shift Happens. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1065313/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
