New Bitwise research shows global institutions held or bought more crypto through a steep market decline, with most planning to increase allocations
Institutional investors are proving far less skittish about cryptocurrency than the market has long assumed, according to a study published September 23, 2026, by Bitwise Asset Management, a global crypto asset manager with $9 billion in client assets.
The firm's inaugural Institutional Crypto Adoption report - drawn from in-depth interviews conducted between late March and April 2026 with senior investment professionals at 15 of the world's largest institutions - found that not one respondent cut its crypto allocation through a roughly 50 per cent market drawdown between October 2025 and April 2026. Several used the decline as a buying opportunity.
"Crypto markets fell roughly 50% between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, yet not one institution we interviewed reduced its allocation during the sell-off, while several bought more," said Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management in San Francisco. "When asked what would prompt them to exit, none of them said price."
The finding carries direct relevance for Canadian financial advisors and wealth managers navigating client conversations about digital assets, particularly as Canada remains one of the most mature markets globally for crypto exchange-traded products, having been the first country in the world to approve a bitcoin ETF when the Purpose Bitcoin ETF launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange in February 2021.
Bitcoin is the only asset on which institutions agree
The study surveyed institutions spanning endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, and public companies, ranging from hundreds of millions to tens of billions of dollars in assets under management.
The clearest finding across all institution types: bitcoin is the singular conviction asset. Every institution in the study that holds crypto owns bitcoin, most often as its first, largest, and longest-held position. The dominant framing is a store of value, frequently paired explicitly with gold as a hedge against fiat currency debasement.
"People are starting to use bitcoin as a fiat debasement trade along with gold," one large endowment told the research team. Several endowments built bitcoin and gold positions in parallel as a deliberate portfolio construction choice. One sovereign wealth fund went further, describing a portion of its crypto allocation as funded by selling foreign exchange and gold reserves.
Allocation sizes across the group ranged from 0.5 per cent to 13 per cent of investable assets, with most sitting between 1 per cent and 2 per cent, typically spread across spot ETFs, direct ownership, venture capital, and hedge funds.
Ethereum and Solana occupy a fundamentally different category. Institutions that hold these assets carry shorter time horizons and explicit performance conditions, generally tied to whether real-world adoption translates to token value within the next few years. Several institutions hold neither, citing an inability to identify a clear mechanism by which user activity accrues value to the underlying token.
The barriers that remain are operational, not analytical
Ryan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise, noted a pattern that held across institution types: the debate about whether crypto belongs in a portfolio has largely been resolved. What slows allocation now is fitting crypto into existing investment policy frameworks, navigating board and committee processes, and managing perceived reputational risk.
"What stands out across these conversations is how consistent the thinking has become," Rasmussen said. "Institutions with different mandates, governance, and constraints have arrived at a strikingly similar view of how to approach crypto in their portfolios."
Career risk remains a material force, particularly at public-facing institutions. The report notes that pension funds, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds all named it as a factor, and that institutions tend to allocate in clusters, once a critical mass of peers discloses a position, the career-risk calculus shifts from "I allocated and it went wrong" to "everyone else allocated and I missed it."
Among those that have not yet allocated, the report found many were already in advanced stages of due diligence. The barriers are falling as spot crypto ETF proliferation expands, regulation improves, and peer disclosure grows. Bitwise expects a majority of institutional investors globally to hold crypto within five years.
Spot ETFs have reshaped access for advisors and institutions alike
The report highlights the degree to which spot ETF structures have resolved practical obstacles to institutional participation. Nearly every institution interviewed either uses spot crypto ETFs or plans to, citing lower all-in costs, simpler custody arrangements, and the ease with which ETF positions integrate into back-office reporting.
For Canadian wealth managers, the ETF access story is well-established. According to the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC), there were 16 Canadian crypto ETFs with net assets of approximately $8 billion as of the end of 2024, a market that has since continued to expand with Solana and XRP spot ETF launches by Canadian firms in the second quarter of 2025.
The Bitwise report also flags an important measurement issue: some institutions deliberately invest through vehicles that bypass 13F public disclosure requirements in the United States. Estimates of institutional crypto ownership based on those filings should be read as a floor, not a ceiling.
Hougan framed the broader shift plainly: "The institutions we interviewed have largely stopped debating whether crypto belongs in a portfolio. They are instead debating how much, in what form, on what schedule, and under what governance constraints. The debate has moved from 'if' to 'how.'"