Advisors Now Favor Stablecoins Over Bitcoin: Bitwise CIO

On that day, Hougan conducted eight separate sales calls with advisory teams collectively representing more than 40 financial advisors. The conversations, he wrote, were dominated by questions about stablecoin operations and tokenized asset infrastructure rather than bitcoin's macroeconomic thesis. The shift is material in scale: financial advisors collectively manage more than $175 trillion in assets, meaning even marginal allocation changes within that channel carry significant capital implications for tokenization platforms and stablecoin issuers.

The memo's findings align with a broader pattern of institutional attention to stablecoins. Stablecoin mentions in SEC filings and investor presentations peaked at roughly 1,000 in the first quarter of 2026, according to analytics firm Artemis as cited by BeInCrypto. On February 19, SEC staff issued guidance stating that broker-dealers may apply a 2% capital haircut to payment stablecoins, treating them as near-cash instruments — a regulatory signal that has accelerated compliance teams' engagement with the asset class.

Survey data reinforces the operational dimension of this shift. A Fireblocks report based on a March 2025 survey of 295 finance executives found that 49% of institutions already use stablecoins for payments. Separately, the 2026 Bitwise/VettaFi survey found that 56% of financial advisors owned crypto personally, while 42% reported they could purchase crypto directly in client accounts. The gap between personal ownership and client-account access suggests that compliance and product availability, rather than conviction, remain the primary constraints on advisor-driven crypto allocation.

Venture capital data from Silicon Valley Bank's 2026 crypto outlook provides additional context for the infrastructure buildout underpinning advisor interest. According to PitchBook data cited in SVB's industry analysis, investors deployed $7.9 billion into crypto and blockchain companies in 2025, up 44% from 2024. Deal volume fell 33% over the same period, but the median check size climbed 1.5x to $5 million, indicating that capital concentrated into fewer, larger bets on infrastructure-layer companies. Seed-stage companies in the sector carried a median valuation of $34 million, up 70% from 2023 levels.

The advisor sentiment Hougan documented after more than 40 RIA meetings in June 2026 reflects a structural divergence from the fiat-debasement narrative that historically drove bitcoin adoption among wealth management clients. Stablecoin mentions on U.S. corporate earnings calls increased more than 10x over the prior year, per SVB's analysis, suggesting that the asset class has moved from a crypto-native conversation into mainstream corporate treasury and payments discussions that advisors are now fielding from clients.

Hougan's memo does not specify which tokenization platforms or stablecoin issuers advisors asked about by name, nor does it quantify any actual allocation decisions or asset flows that resulted from the June meetings. The memo does not establish that any of the 40-plus advisors represented have launched tokenized-asset products for clients, committed capital to stablecoin-linked instruments, or filed updated investment policy statements to accommodate these asset classes. The 2026 Bitwise/VettaFi survey figure showing 42% of advisors can buy crypto in client accounts does not distinguish between advisors who have done so and those who retain the option without having exercised it.

What the June 10 memo establishes concretely is a documented change in the questions financial advisors are directing at one of the largest crypto asset managers — a shift from bitcoin's store-of-value case toward the operational mechanics of stablecoins and tokenized assets. It does not identify a specific tokenized real estate product, a named institutional mandate, a live client deployment, or a regulatory approval that any of the advisory teams involved have received or applied for.