SKN | Institutions Held Crypto Through 50% Drawdown, Bitwise Finds

Key Points:

• All 15 institutions interviewed by Bitwise said they maintained their crypto allocations during a roughly 50% market drawdown, with several increasing exposure.
• Bitcoin was held by every institution with crypto exposure and was generally the largest and longest-held digital asset position.
• Ether and Solana faced a higher threshold for continued ownership, with some institutions saying they could sell if network growth failed to translate into value for the underlying tokens.

Institutional investors largely maintained their commitment to crypto through a market drawdown of roughly 50%, according to a Bitwise report based on interviews with 15 professional investment organizations.

The findings provide a snapshot of how endowments, foundations, public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants and public companies approached digital assets during a period of significant market weakness.

The interviews were conducted in late March and April as the crypto market was dealing with a decline that began in October 2025. Bitwise said none of the institutions interviewed reduced their crypto allocations because of falling prices.

Institutions Maintained Exposure Through Market Decline

Every institution in Bitwise’s sample that held crypto maintained its allocation during the drawdown, while several used the decline to increase their positions.

The institutions reported crypto allocations ranging from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, although most allocations fell between 1% and 2%.

Price declines were not identified as a trigger for selling. Instead, respondents cited more fundamental developments that could cause them to reconsider their positions, including a regulatory reversal, a broad credibility crisis within the crypto industry or a failure of their original investment thesis.

That distinction suggests that at least among the institutions interviewed, crypto exposure was generally being treated as a strategic allocation rather than a position dependent primarily on short-term price performance.

Bitcoin Remains the Core Institutional Position

Bitcoin was the common denominator among institutions holding crypto. Every institution with digital-asset exposure owned BTC, and it was generally described as the largest and longest-held position.

Most institutions viewed Bitcoin primarily as a store of value, with several comparing its role within portfolios to that of gold.

The report also found that institutional access is increasingly moving toward regulated investment vehicles. Almost every institution interviewed either already used spot crypto ETFs or planned to use them, while some were moving away from private placements or direct custody.

The shift reflects a broader evolution in how professional investors can obtain digital-asset exposure without necessarily maintaining direct custody of the underlying assets.

Ether and Solana Face Higher Investment Hurdles

The institutional outlook for Ether and Solana was less consistent than for Bitcoin.

Several institutions told Bitwise that they could potentially exit ETH or SOL over the coming years if growth in areas such as stablecoins, decentralized finance and tokenization failed to generate corresponding value for the tokens themselves.

This creates a different investment framework from the one applied to Bitcoin. While BTC was generally treated as a store-of-value asset, some institutions viewed ETH and SOL through the lens of whether economic activity on their respective networks ultimately benefits token holders.

One institution interviewed by Bitwise held neither Ether nor Solana despite having used decentralized finance applications extensively. According to the report, the institution did not see a sufficiently clear mechanism through which that activity would translate into value for the underlying tokens.

Institutional Exposure Is Becoming More Structured

The findings come alongside other data showing changes in how professional investors access Bitcoin.

A CoinShares analysis of 13F filings published in June found that reported institutional exposure to US spot Bitcoin ETFs declined 17% during the first quarter. Hedge funds and brokerages accounted for approximately 96% of the reduction, while banks increased their exposure.

The Bitwise interviews cover a different group of investors and a different methodology, so the two sets of findings do not necessarily point to the same portfolio behavior across the entire institutional market.

Instead, they illustrate how institutional crypto exposure can vary significantly by investor type, investment mandate and asset.

Outlook

The Bitwise findings indicate that the institutions surveyed were willing to tolerate substantial crypto-market volatility without automatically reducing their allocations. Bitcoin appeared to have the strongest strategic position within these portfolios, while Ether and Solana faced greater scrutiny over whether network adoption ultimately translates into token value.

For institutional investors, the next phase of crypto adoption may therefore depend less on short-term price movements and more on regulation, market credibility and evidence that the economic activity surrounding individual blockchain networks supports the assets themselves.