The First-Ever Bitwise Institutional Crypto Adoption Report

Institutions are generally reluctant to discuss their crypto positions. Whether for competitive reasons or reputational ones, most have historically avoided disclosing what they own—which means the public conversation about institutional adoption runs largely on inference.

So we asked them directly.

Over three months, Bitwise interviewed the senior investment professionals responsible for crypto decisions at 15 of the world's largest institutions: endowments, foundations, public pension funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, sovereign wealth funds, and public companies. We asked what they hold, how much, why, and what would make them sell.

What we found:

• Not one institution we interviewed reduced its allocation through the roughly 50% drawdown between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026. Several bought more.

• Every institution that owns crypto owns bitcoin—for nearly all, their first, largest, and longest-held position, and increasingly one they pair with gold.

• Allocations ranged from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, with most between 1% and 2%.

• Ethereum and Solana are held, but in smaller positions, on shorter horizons, and with explicit exit conditions tied to value accrual.

• Not one investor named price as a reason they would sell. The stated triggers are thesis failure, regulatory reversal, or an industry-wide credibility crisis.

• Allocation size tracks inversely with the number of people who must approve it. Family offices reported the highest allocations, sovereign wealth funds the lowest.

The common assumption is that institutions are the weak hands in a crypto drawdown. These interviews suggest the opposite.

For a deeper dive into institutional crypto adoption, and to understand why we expect a majority of institutional investors to hold crypto within five years, read the full report.