Bitwise interviews find 15 institutions held crypto through 50% decline
Bitwise says none of the 15 institutions it interviewed cut crypto allocations during a roughly 50% market fall, while several prospective buyers advanced due diligence.
Key points
- Bitwise interviewed 15 major institutions between late March and April, publishing its institutional crypto adoption report on Sept. 23.
- None of the interviewees reduced its crypto allocation during a roughly 50% market decline between October 2025 and April 2026, and several bought more.
- Allocations ranged from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, with most between 1% and 2%; family offices held the largest positions.
- Every crypto-owning interviewee held bitcoin, generally as its first, largest and longest-held position; some also held ether or solana.
- Bitwise forecasts a majority of institutional investors will hold crypto within five years, and a separate January Coinbase and EY-Parthenon survey of 351 investors found nearly three-quarters planned to raise allocations in 2026.
Bitwise has published an institutional crypto adoption report finding that large investors held their positions through a steep market fall, according to Bitcoin.com News. The firm interviewed 15 major institutions between late March and April, and the report was published on Sept. 23. None of those interviewed cut its crypto allocation during a decline of roughly 50% between October 2025 and April 2026, and several added to their holdings.
The interviews also included investors that had not yet bought crypto. Several were in advanced due diligence, and multiple sovereign wealth funds were actively examining sizable positions, Bitwise said. One sovereign investor told the firm that building the legal and regulatory infrastructure for an allocation could take more than a year, so any decision may take time to appear in public holdings.
Bitwise said the willingness to hold through the decline shaped its outlook. None of the interviewees named a price drop as a reason to sell, and an investment consultant told the firm that selling now would be selling too early if the adoption thesis holds. In a separate poll of wealth managers discussed by Bitwise head of research Ryan Rasmussen on Sept. 8, 60% of respondents planned a crypto allocation within a year while 67% had none at the time.
Institutions hold through sell-off
Allocations among those interviewed ranged from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, with most between 1% and 2%. Family offices reported the largest positions and could often act with approval from a single principal, while sovereign wealth funds tended to hold less and work through more layers of review. Bitwise found allocation size tracked almost inversely with the number of people needed to approve it.
Every interviewee that owned crypto held bitcoin, generally as its first, largest and longest-held position. Some also held ether or solana in smaller amounts, attaching conditions such as whether growing use of those networks would produce value for their tokens. Almost every institution interviewed used or planned to use spot crypto exchange-traded funds, citing lower costs and simpler administration.
Bitwise noted that public filings are an incomplete measure of ownership, since some institutions use vehicles outside Form 13F disclosure. It pointed to two Abu Dhabi investment vehicles that held nearly $764 million in Blackrock bitcoin ETF shares at the end of June without reducing their combined net share count in the second quarter. Those disclosed holdings are separate from the anonymous institutions in the study.
How positions are built
Bitwise expects adoption to build as investors finish due diligence and more institutions disclose positions, arguing each credible public allocation lowers the reputational cost for the next institution. It forecasts a majority of institutional investors will hold crypto within five years, a projection rather than a measured outcome of the interviews. A January Coinbase and EY-Parthenon survey of 351 institutional investors found nearly three-quarters planned to increase allocations in 2026, with almost half reporting more attention to risk management, liquidity and position sizing.