Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan wrote that Sunday’s geopolitical shock pushed investors toward markets that never close, arguing it accelerated the timeline for finance moving onchain, according to Bitwise’s CIO memo.
Hougan said President Trump announced an attack on Iran at 2:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 28, when U.S. stocks, futures, major FX, and most global markets were closed. He wrote that, instead of waiting for traditional venues to reopen, participants used crypto rails that trade 24/7, with Hyperliquid’s “real-world” oil perps becoming a reference point and its HYPE token rising about 30% over the weekend. He also pointed to a spike in trading volume for Tether’s tokenized gold (XAUT) to over $300 million and said prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket set new volume records.
Hougan’s takeaway was operational: if hedge funds and banks want to trade competitively, they need to onboard to stablecoins, wallets, and onchain venues. Next, stakeholders will watch whether this weekend’s behavior change converts into sustained volume, faster tokenization efforts, and broader institutional readiness to operate in an always-on market structure.
Source: Bitwise Investments, “The Weekend That Changed Finance.”
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