Why Onchain Vaults Are Following Stablecoins Everywhere | Hunter Horsley

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Hunter Horsley, co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, about the firm’s launch of onchain vault strategies wiith Morpho and latest Q4 2025 corporate adoption report of bitcoin and ethereum as well as his outlook on digital asset treasuries. Hunter explains what vaults are, why they're following the adoption curve of stablecoins, and how they enable 4-6% yields, while investors maintain custody. He walks through Bitwise's expansion beyond ETFs into staking, options strategies, and DeFi vault curation, why institutions are going from "0 to 500 miles per hour" on crypto, and what the corporate bitcoin adoption numbers reveal. The conversation covers the “honeymoon phase” wearing off for treasury companies, the investor relations role DATs play in the ecosystem, why two-thirds of financial institutions will be in crypto within 6 months, and the shift from the "tell me era" to the "show me era" in institutional adoption.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Intro (01:05) What are onchain vaults and why is everyone talking about them (02:04) Bitwise x Morpho vault announcement (02:32) Why people care about vaults: stablecoins parking and earning yield (03:00) Vaults following stablecoin adoption and doubled in assets last year (03:20) How institutional investors should think about vault risk vs traditional fixed income (05:10) Real world assets hitting $20 billion and stablecoins reaching $300 billion (05:35) Onchain lending rates differ from traditional bank rates (05:50) Why Bitwise is expanding beyond ETFs into onchain yield strategies (06:48) Major banks approving Bitwise ETFs in last 6 months (07:52) Bitwise staking several billion dollars for clients and running bitcoin options strategies (08:49) Building a team that managed $2 billion of DeFi strategies (09:42) Where vault opportunities are going as traditional firms enter the space (11:10) Massive fintechs integrating stablecoins and vaults by end of year (11:50) Q4 2025 corporate bitcoin adoption report key findings (13:00) 19 new public companies bought Bitcoin in Q4 (14:05) Figma put 4% of balance sheet into bitcoin through Bitwise ETF (15:30) His 9-minute call with an AI company that put bitcoin on the balance sheet (16:20) Ethereum holdings: Bitmain, SharpLink, and EtherMachine (16:50) Treasury companies post-honeymoon phase will look very different by year-end (18:05) Why the world doesn't need a million treasury companies (18:32) DATs and investor relations roles that crypto protocols lack (20:43) How many treasury companies can exist per major asset (22:07) Institutions buying more crypto AND becoming more crypto native (23:00) Moving from "tell me era" to "show me era" for crypto (24:50) Banks going from 0 to 500 miles per hour on crypto (26:23) Two-thirds of financial institutions will be in crypto within 6 months (26:49) January 2026 is the most bullish moment in Bitwise's 8 years

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