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Institutions Held Crypto Through 50% Drawdown, Bitwise Finds
Bitcoin remained the core holding as institutions set tougher conditions for Ether and Solana
TL;DR
- None of 15 institutions interviewed by Bitwise reduced crypto allocations during an approximately 50% market drawdown, while several bought more.
- Every institution with crypto exposure held Bitcoin, usually as its first, largest and longest-held digital asset.
- Most crypto allocations remained small, while governance, operational and reputational concerns limited larger positions.
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Bitwise found that none of the 15 institutions it interviewed cut their crypto allocations during an approximately 50% market drawdown from October 2025 through April 2026, while several increased their holdings. The findings, released September 24, 2026, showed that Bitcoin carried the strongest institutional conviction, while Ether and Solana were generally treated as more conditional technology investments.
Bitwise conducted the interviews in late March and April 2026 while the market decline was still underway. The asset manager, which managed more than $9 billion in client assets, interviewed investment professionals representing university endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign or state-owned investment funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants and public companies. The institutions were not named, and their assets ranged from hundreds of millions to tens of billions of dollars.
Price declines alone were not cited as a reason to exit crypto. Respondents instead pointed to events that could undermine the investment case, including a regulatory reversal, an industry-wide credibility crisis or scandal, or failure of the original thesis. Some respondents had already held crypto through previous declines of similar magnitude, including in 2022.
An investment consultant quoted by Bitwise summarized that long-term approach: “If the thesis is right, given the S-curve of adoption, selling now would be selling too early.”
Bitcoin Leads Institutional Crypto Holdings
Every institution interviewed that owned crypto held Bitcoin. For almost all of those investors, BTC was their first, largest and longest-held crypto asset. Most treated Bitcoin as a store of value and often considered it alongside gold.
Ether and Solana were viewed differently. Several institutions treated ETH and SOL as technology or network-adoption investments and said they could sell if expanding blockchain activity failed to translate into value for the tokens. Applications cited in that assessment included stablecoins, decentralized finance and tokenization.
One institution held neither Ether nor Solana despite having used DeFi applications extensively. Bitwise said the institution had observed substantial blockchain activity but did not see a clear mechanism through which that use would necessarily increase the value of ETH or SOL.
Crypto positions also remained relatively small compared with institutions’ broader portfolios.
Almost every institution interviewed either used spot crypto exchange-traded funds or planned to use them. Some investors were moving from private placements or direct custody toward ETFs. Bitwise identified governance, operations and reputation as the main barriers preventing institutions from taking larger positions.
Public Filings Show More Mixed Institutional Behavior
Public filings showed that the behavior of Bitwise’s interview group did not represent every large investor. Harvard’s endowment reduced its Bitcoin ETF stake by 43% during the first quarter of 2026, according to its 13F filing. Whether Harvard was among Bitwise’s interviewees was explicitly identified as unknown.
Abu Dhabi’s two state funds took the opposite approach, retaining every IBIT share they held through the second-quarter market decline.
Separate 13F data published in June 2026 showed that professional investors’ reported exposure to U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs fell 17% during the first quarter. Hedge funds and brokerages accounted for roughly 96% of that reduction, while banks increased exposure.
Bitwise said public filings can understate institutional crypto ownership because some investors use vehicles that do not require the same disclosures. The asset manager also selected the institutions it interviewed and sells crypto investment products to the same general types of investors.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
