[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Hunter Horsley (헌터 호슬리), CEO of Bitwise, compared the current cryptocurrency market to a "winner-selection phase" after the internet bubble burst. He forecast that in the next market cycle there is a strong possibility that funds will concentrate in proven projects.

On June 22 (local time), blockchain media outlet CoinPost reported that Horsley said on June 21 on X, formerly Twitter, that the current cryptocurrency market is entering a stage similar to the internet industry in the late 1990s.

He said that during the dotcom bubble, hundreds of internet companies were given valuations worth hundreds of millions of dollars based only on growth potential. After the bubble burst, only a small number of companies that proved performance and competitiveness survived. Horsley also stressed that the companies that survived then grew to a larger scale and for a longer period than in the previous cycle.

He said the current cryptocurrency market is showing a similar flow. Horsley said, "There will be fewer winners," but added that "the projects that remain can grow much bigger and for much longer than people expect." This is interpreted as meaning that projects valued only on simple expectations or speculative narratives are gradually being filtered out, and that funds are likely to be reshuffled toward assets that prove real user demand, technological competitiveness and ecosystem scalability.

The comments are drawing attention because they focus on which assets will survive rather than on the overall direction of the market. Horsley said the cryptocurrency market is moving from a stage where it was valued only on potential to a stage where it is being tested for tangible results and adoption. He stressed that "winners will be fewer, but those winners can grow on a much larger scale than most investors think."

Bitwise is an asset manager in the United States that runs various digital asset investment products, including spot bitcoin ETFs and ethereum ETFs. It is also continuing to expand cryptocurrency investment products for institutional investors. The comments were presented as Horsley's personal view rather than an official company forecast, but they drew market attention as the perspective of the head of an asset manager that is in active contact with institutional investors.

Against this backdrop, remarks about the market cycle are also continuing within Bitwise. Earlier, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said what matters in bitcoin investment is not timing the bottom but judging where the ceiling is. Horsley's latest comments, however, focused on changes in market structure rather than on a price forecast.

As a result, the market is watching how quickly funds are reshuffled toward tokens that prove technological superiority or real adoption cases. If Horsley's diagnosis is right, the next cycle could unfold as a structure in which demand concentrates in assets that have already proved strengths, rather than a market where the number of tokens spreads widely.