Ethereum ETF countdown: Bitwise CIO sees 'birth of a new asset class'

Wall Street is getting acceptable for a caller batch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds: ethereum. 

Spot ether ETFs could deed the marketplace arsenic soon arsenic this week, pending U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approval, and Bitwise Asset Management's Matthew Hougan plans to get successful connected the action.

"What you're seeing is this benignant of the commencement of a caller plus class," the firm's main concern serviceman told CNBC's "ETF Edge" connected Monday.

Hougan's steadfast is applying for spot ether ETFs.

"If you privation to put successful the maturation of tokenization, ethereum is similar the picks and shovels play," Hougan said. "It underpins each of it. … I deliberation that is going to entreaty to a batch of people."

He thinks cryptocurrency ETFs wide are a multiyear story. Hougan is referring to the archetypal spot bitcoin ETFs that launched successful January. He sees their occurrence arsenic a bully indicator of the future.

"It's [bitcoin] moving into the mainstream," helium noted. "That's going to beryllium a multiyear story."

Spot bitcoin ETFs person attracted astir $15 cardinal since their motorboat and presently clasp 2 of the apical ETF inflows this year, according to FactSet.

Hougan views bitcoin's caller occurrence arsenic unprecedented and sees it arsenic a bullish indicator for spot ether ETFs. 

"If we get 5 oregon 10 oregon 15 cardinal dollars successful the archetypal 2 years of these ethereum ETFs, that is simply a monolithic runaway success," Hougan said.