Bitwise Report: Institutions Kept Their Bitcoin Through the Crash and Some Bought More

Large investors held on as crypto prices were cut in half

When crypto prices fell by about half between October 2025 and April 2026, the biggest institutional investors did not sell, according to a new report from Bitwise Asset Management. The report says several of them bought more instead.

Bitwise interviewed senior allocators at 15 major institutions for the study. An allocator is the person who decides how an institution invests its money. The group included endowments, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and public companies.

The report, published by a crypto asset manager, is the main source of the findings. Bitcoin Magazine reported on it on September 24, 2026.

What the report says about staying put

• Not one of the institutions reduced its crypto allocation during the sell-off, the report says.
• None of them named a price downturn as a reason they would exit a position.
• Every institution in the study that owns crypto owns bitcoin.
• For nearly all of them, bitcoin was their first crypto purchase, their largest holding, and the asset they have held longest.
• Bitwise said it expects a majority of institutions to hold crypto within five years. That is a forecast, not a confirmed outcome.

Bitcoin is the asset institutions agree on

Other crypto tokens get different treatment, the report says. Institutions hold them in smaller amounts as speculative bets on technology, with set deadlines for the tokens to prove their value. Bitcoin was the only crypto asset where institutional conviction was consistent.

One endowment described its position as a long-term bet on bitcoin becoming a $20 trillion market within the next five to 15 years. That is the view of one institution, not a confirmed figure.

Bitcoin placed next to gold as a currency hedge

Many allocators now treat bitcoin alongside gold as protection against currency debasement, which means a currency losing value over time. Several endowments built the two positions side by side. One institution files bitcoin directly in its "gold bucket", and one sovereign wealth fund is partly funding its crypto allocation by selling gold and foreign exchange reserves.

"People are starting to use bitcoin as a fiat debasement trade along with gold," one large endowment told Bitwise.

Another institution went further, suggesting it might abandon gold entirely in favor of bitcoin within a decade.

The report also notes that this debasement trade was popular last year and helped bitcoin's run, but lost steam after October as traders turned their attention to stocks linked to artificial intelligence.

What would make these investors sell

The investors said they would exit only if the underlying reason for holding broke down. Examples given were a regulatory reversal or a credibility crisis across the industry.

Price swings alone do not move them. Some have already held through more than one drop of 50% or more, including in 2022.

"If the thesis is right, given the S-curve of adoption, selling now would be selling too early," one investment consultant said.

What is still unclear

The findings cover 15 institutions, not the whole institutional market. The institutions are not named in the report, so their views cannot be checked independently. Bitwise's expectation that a majority of institutions will hold crypto within five years is an estimate about the future.

Bitcoin's price recently stood at $84,506. It was unchanged over a 24-hour period and up nearly 7% over the past 30 days. The coin started a run in August and rose sharply again last week. Some experts have said bitcoin is back in a bull market, but that is an opinion rather than a confirmed fact.

Why the report stands out

The study suggests that at least some large investors treated the downturn as a reason to hold or add, rather than to leave. It also points to bitcoin keeping a different role from other crypto assets in these portfolios.

Sources

• Bitcoin Magazine

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