The price of bitcoin may rocket to $100,000 by the end of this year and 2024 may usher in "a new asset class" if spot ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are approved by the the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) later this year, according to Bitwise’s chief investment officer Matt Hougan.

“The crypto market is facing a weird dynamic right now… All the short-term news is bad, and all the long-term news is good. The dichotomy is creating an incredible potential opportunity for long-term investors,” Hougan said.

Bitcoin’s impending positive price momentum, forecast by Hougan, may be propelled by a multiplicity of factors, ranging from continued inflows to bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the anticipated approval of an ethereum ETF this year to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s possible interest rate reductions, Bitwise’s Hougan said.

In the first seven months since their debut this January, bitcoin ETFs have accumulated $15.5 billion dollars in total inflows, attracting institutional and retail interest alike. With greater institutional adoption on the horizon, that number is expected to increase. “When that happens — later this year, I suspect — we’re likely to see billions more flow in,” Hougan said.

In a recent interview, the Bitwise executive also trumpeted the “birth of a new asset class,” referencing the SEC potential full approval of spot ethereum ETFs later this year. “If we get five or 10 or 15 billion dollars in the first two years of these ethereum ETFs, that is a massive runaway success,” Hougan said.

“If you want to invest in the growth of tokenization, [ether] is like the picks and shovels play,” Hougan added. “It underpins all of it.”