Institutions Hold Firm on Crypto Amid 50% Market Drawdown

Institutional investors did not retreat from cryptocurrency investments during the market's roughly 50% drawdown period, according to Bitwise's first Institutional Crypto Adoption Report. The firm interviewed 15 large allocators and found none reduced crypto exposure between October 2025 and April 2026.

Several institutions instead increased allocations, complicating the narrative around heavy Bitcoin ETF outflows. Public fund data showed substantial selling, yet longer-term institutional allocators largely stayed invested.

The institutions included endowments, foundations, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices and public companies. Their portfolios ranged from hundreds of millions to tens of billions. Crypto allocations ranged from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, although most respondents held between 1% and 2%. Exposure extended beyond ETF products.

Bitcoin was the common holding across every institution already invested in crypto. It was usually their first, largest and longest-held digital asset. Some allocators paired Bitcoin with gold within broader store-of-value strategies. Ethereum and Solana, however, received less consistent support. Those assets were generally treated as smaller, shorter-duration technology investments.

ETF outflows masked the longer-term institutional crypto holding. Market data showed heavy ETF withdrawals during the downturn. Bitwise described the second quarter as the worst quarter for spot Bitcoin ETF outflows. Farside Investors recorded $691.7 million of withdrawals on June 25 and another $444.5 million on June 26.