Bitwise: This weekend's attack accelerated the on-chain migration of the financial world

Original Title: The Weekend That Changed Finance

Original Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise

Original Translation: Luffy, Foresight News

I have always believed that the migration of the financial industry to the blockchain is inevitable.

Blockchain allows assets to trade 24/7, settle instantly, and at a significantly lower cost compared to the traditional system. It makes traditional stock exchanges and T+1 settlement seem incredibly outdated.

But I have always been curious: when will this transformation take place? And what event will drive the entire system to change fundamentally?

After all, most people don't really feel the delay in the current system. When my uncle buys stocks in his Charles Schwab account, he doesn't care about waiting a day for settlement or about the complex processes involving mysterious institutions like the NSCC, DTCC, and Cede & Co. He buys, the stocks appear in his account, simple and straightforward, without any hiccups.

So I used to think that crypto-driven markets would first grow at the edges. Over the next 5 to 10 years, they would mainly serve crypto-native users and those who can't seamlessly integrate into the traditional financial system, such as global retail investors who want to trade US stocks. Eventually, these systems would become good enough to slowly take over the existing system, and institutions like the NYSE would gradually transition to tokenized markets, just as they did from floor trading to electronic trading years ago.

This would be a classic tech story: first disrupt the periphery, then take over the core. I thought this would take 5 to 10 years.

But this weekend proved me wrong. Now I am convinced that all of this is happening much faster than anyone anticipated.

What Happened This Weekend

At 2:30 AM EST on Sunday, February 28, Trump announced an attack on Iran. This timing was very particular for the global financial markets as nearly all markets were closed.

· US stock market closed
· US futures market closed
· Major forex markets closed
· European markets closed
· Asian markets closed

Essentially, only Middle Eastern stock markets such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar (which operate Sunday to Thursday) were still trading at this time, but these markets are limited in size and coverage, with minimal participation from Western investors and a limited range of assets.

In the past, if a significant geopolitical event occurred on a Sunday morning, investors had to wait until Sunday evening at the U.S. futures open at 6:00 p.m. to see how the market would react. But this weekend showed us: they now have another option, turning to the around-the-clock, global trading of crypto infrastructure.

And this weekend, they did just that.

All day Sunday, on-chain finance became the core of global finance. In particular, the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid took the spotlight. It offers perpetual contract trading for crypto assets as well as real-world assets like crude oil.

Hyperliquid saw a massive surge in trading volume, to the point that Bloomberg, reporting on the impact of the airstrike on oil, directly quoted the crude oil contract price on Hyperliquid as the most meaningful price. This was no coincidence: Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, surged around 30% over the weekend. In my view, this looks more like investors front-running its future.

But it wasn't just Hyperliquid. Trading volume for Tether's gold token, XAUT, soared to over $300 million in 24 hours. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket set new records for trading volume. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum also took the spotlight.

In my memory, this is the first time that, in a true sense, the cryptocurrency market has truly become the "market."

Why This Matters

If you're a hedge fund, bank, or any investor looking to stay competitive, you have no choice now: you must open a stablecoin wallet, learn to trade on Hyperliquid, understand XAUT, research tokenized stocks.

Because even if you don't, someone else will.

This trend will accelerate. The biggest barrier to entry in on-chain markets is getting familiar with wallets, stablecoins, Hyperliquid, Uniswap, and other tools. Once you get the hang of it, all the new capabilities of DeFi and on-chain finance are within reach. Exposure leads to exploration, exploration leads to trading.

Of course, some will say: Traditional markets can do this too! Nasdaq is moving towards 5 days a week, 23 hours a day trading! We don't offer 24/7 trading because no one needs it!

Alright, say what you want. This is how Blockbuster viewed Netflix back then, and how Microsoft viewed the iPhone.

The shift to On-Chain Finance is inevitable. And after this weekend, I am convinced: its arrival will be even sooner than any of us could imagine.

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