Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says several major crypto tokens are getting better at capturing value for their holders. In a series of posts, he explained that the market may be overlooking this shift during the current pullback.
Hougan began with UNI, which he called the clearest example. For years, the main criticism of UNI was that it acted only as a governance token. Even though Uniswap is one of the largest decentralized exchanges, the activity on the platform did not directly benefit UNI holders.
That may now change. The community is reviewing a vote on a feature often called the “fee switch.” If approved, about 16% of trading fees would be used to burn UNI. Hougan believes this could help the token climb toward the top tier of the market over time.
1/ One source of alpha is recognizing big news that gets lost in the shuffle. In the chaos of the current market pullback, a lot is getting lost in the shuffle.
One example: Tokens are getting much better at capturing value. I’ll cover three examples: UNI, ETH, and XRP.
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) November 22, 2025
Ethereum’s Fusaka Upgrade Boosts Revenue Capture
Hougan also highlighted Ethereum, noting that its upcoming Fusaka upgrade, expected in December, could strengthen its value capture. He said the update introduces a minimum fee for Layer-2 networks that post data to Ethereum. Research groups believe this could increase Ethereum’s revenue by five to ten times when combined with other changes.
Hougan expects the market to pay more attention once the upgrade goes live. He called it an underappreciated catalyst that could support Ethereum in the next market rebound.
2/ UNI is the most obvious. The big knock on UNI has always been that it is a governance token. Uniswap is great, but activity on Uniswap didn’t benefit UNI token holders.
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) November 22, 2025
XRP Explores New Economic Models
The last example was XRP, where the community has started discussing new ways to increase token utility. Hougan noted that ideas such as staking are gaining interest. If adopted, these models would shift how value flows to XRP holders and reshape the token’s long-term economics.
5/ Among other things, Fusaka introduces a minimum fee for recording data from Layer 2s. @DigitalAssets wrote a great report on this. Together with other important changes, this could 5-10X revenue capture by the blockchain.
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) November 22, 2025
Hougan said the common thread across UNI, ETH, and XRP is simple: value capture is rising across the crypto sector. Many tokens were originally designed with limited economic features because of regulatory uncertainty. As rules evolve, he believes projects will feel the impact of stronger value capture starting in 2026.
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