According to Bitwise's inaugural Institutional Crypto Adoption report published on September 23, 2026, none of the 15 large institutions cut their cryptocurrency holdings as the market fell roughly 50% between October 2025 and April 2026. The group included university endowments, pension funds, state-owned investment funds, family offices and public companies, with every crypto-owning institution holding Bitcoin specifically as their first, largest and longest-held digital asset. Bitwise conducted 15 interviews between late March and April 2026 with senior investment professionals responsible for crypto allocation decisions, covering endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants and public companies. The interviews lasted 30 to 60 minutes and covered sizing, governance, investment vehicles, rebalancing and exit conditions, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana receiving particular attention.
As reported by Bitwise, no respondent named falling prices as a reason to sell, instead stating they would exit only if the case for owning crypto broke, such as a regulatory reversal or an industry-wide scandal. Some institutions had already held through earlier 50% drops, including in 2022. Most treat Bitcoin as a store of value, often paired with gold, while Ethereum and Solana were held more selectively as technology bets that would drop if real-world use fails to appear within a few years. An investment consultant cited in the Bitwise report stated, 'If the thesis is right, given the S-curve of adoption, selling now would be selling too early.'
According to the Bitwise report, positions stayed small, ranging from 0.5% to 13% of investable assets, with most between 1% and 2%. The numbers varied considerably by institution type: endowments and foundations reported allocations from 0.5% to 10%, with most between 0.5% and 2%, while sovereign wealth funds reported 1% to 1.5% and public pensions ranged from 1.5% to 4.5%. Multi-family offices reached as high as 13%, with family offices commonly targeting around 5%. Public companies reported allocating between 1% and 10% of excess cash. Almost every respondent uses or plans to use spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which hold the coin directly and trade like a stock, citing lower costs, fewer operational requirements and easier back-office handling. Bitwise noted that public filings understate institutional ownership, since some investors use vehicles that avoid disclosure.
While most institutions remained firm, public filings show not every large holder stood firm during the decline. As reported by Bitwise, Harvard's endowment cut its Bitcoin ETF stake by 43% in the first quarter of 2026, according to its 13F quarterly report of US holdings, though it is not known whether Harvard was among the interviewees. Conversely, Abu Dhabi's two state funds kept every IBIT share through the second-quarter slide. With Bitcoin trading near $84,534 at press time, Bitwise expects most institutions to hold crypto within five years. Recent data shows Strategy (MSTR) sold 1,690 BTC in August, and earlier in the downturn, $1.55 billion left spot Bitcoin ETFs across six consecutive trading days in mid-May.
Bitcoin's latest rally came after a rough stretch that saw the CLARITY Act fail a Senate vote and the Federal Reserve raise rates for the first time since July 2023, pushing BTC down to $75,000 more than once. The recovery accelerated on Monday as ETF inflows accelerated, adding about $7,000 to its price in under a day. Bernstein estimated in June that ETFs and corporate treasury buyers had provided around $12 billion of combined Bitcoin inflows during 2026, with treasury companies accounting for most of that demand. On September 23, analyst Crypto Patel noted that Bitcoin regained its estimated average ETF holders' cost basis at $81,722, placing most ETF investors into profitable territory for the first time in months. Bitwise's findings suggest that institutional crypto exposure visible in 13F filings should be treated as a floor because the filings do not capture direct token ownership, many private funds or other non-reportable vehicles.
