Earlier this year, Bitwise sat down with 15 of the world’s largest institutions: sovereign wealth funds, pensions, endowments, foundations.
Crypto was down 50%, but not one of the institutions we interviewed cut its allocation. Several bought more.
Here’s what else we learned:
Institutions are generally reluctant to announce their crypto positions.
So we asked 15 of the world’s largest investment firms how they’re allocating to crypto today.
Introducing the first-ever Bitwise Institutional Crypto Adoption Report.
bitwiseinvestments.com/crypt…
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1/ Every institution we interviewed that owns crypto owns bitcoin.
For almost all, it was their first, largest, and longest-held crypto position. Most frame it as a store of value, often paired with gold.
It’s the only crypto asset with consistent institutional conviction.
Sep 23, 2026 · 2:21 PM UTC
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2/ Ethereum and Solana are a different story.
Institutions that own them treat them as venture-stage bets on stablecoins, tokenization, and DeFi, with shorter horizons and explicit exit conditions.
Several said if broad adoption doesn’t arrive in a few years, they’ll sell.
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3/ The typical allocation is 1% to 2%.
Allocations ranged from 0.5% to 13% of assets, split across ETFs, direct holdings, venture, and hedge funds.
For institutions, it's big enough to matter if the thesis works, small enough that it can’t derail the portfolio if it doesn't.
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4/ Spot ETFs changed institutional access.
Almost every institution uses ETFs or plans to, citing lower costs, less operational work, and a position the back office treats like any other.
Some avoid ETFs because 13F filings make their holdings public.
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5/ Bitcoin and gold now travel together.
Most institutions we interviewed hold the two as a pair, as a hedge against currency debasement.
One sovereign wealth fund is even funding part of its crypto allocation by selling FX and gold reserves.
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6/ The investment case was the easy part.
Most institutions said whether crypto is a compelling investment was the easiest hurdle to clear, especially for bitcoin.
What slows allocation is governance: investment policy categories, committee approvals, and headline risk.
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7/ Career risk shapes behavior at every public-facing institution we interviewed.
So they allocate in clusters. Once enough peers disclose, the risk flips from “I allocated and it went wrong” to “everyone else allocated and I missed it.”
Endowments look close to that point.
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8/ Few crypto fund managers clear the institutional bar.
One sovereign wealth fund said: “It was really hard to find managers that meet our minimum requirements for size, established track record, and operational infrastructure. We found around ten names.”
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9/ Not one institution cut its crypto allocation during the Oct’25 to Apr’26 sell-off. Several bought more.
None said that price would make them sell. What would cause them to sell is a failure to show utility, a regulatory reversal, or an industry-wide credibility crisis.
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10/ Sovereign wealth funds are coming, slowly.
Multiple were in due diligence on sizable allocations. Several had already allocated. Legal and regulatory setup takes over a year.
For some, crypto is also a national strategy, which makes the position stickier than most assume.
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11/ These institutions have largely stopped debating whether crypto belongs in a portfolio. Now it’s how much, in what form, and under what governance.
We expect a majority of institutional investors to hold crypto within five years.
Full report: bitwiseinvestments.com/crypt…
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