Not a single one of the 15 major investors surveyed by crypto asset manager Bitwise reduced their digital asset portfolios during a roughly 50% market slump spanning from October 2025 to April 2026. In fact, multiple participants increased their allocations.
The participants comprised pension funds, university endowments, public corporations, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds. Every single institution that held cryptocurrency maintained exposure to Bitcoin (BTC).
Why the Institutions Refused to Sell Bitcoin
Bitwise, an administrator of over $9 billion in client funds, conducted these discussions from late March through April 2026. The published findings omit the names of the organizations, which manage portfolios valued from hundreds of millions up to tens of billions of dollars.
Not one participant pointed to declining valuations as a motivation to divest. Rather, interviewees emphasized they would only liquidate if the foundational investment rationale failed, citing potential catalysts like systemic industry corruption or a major regulatory crackdown. Several had already weathered prior drawdowns of 50%, such as the market drop in 2022.
The majority view Bitcoin as a digital store of value, frequently drawing comparisons to gold. Conversely, holdings of Solana and Ethereum were more targeted, treated as technological investments that would be abandoned if practical adoption does not materialize over the next few years.
“If the thesis is right, given the S-curve of adoption, selling now would be selling too early,” read an excerpt in the Bitwise report, citing an investment consultant.
Allocations remained modest, accounting for between 0.5% and 13% of total investable capital, with the majority falling in a 1% to 2% range. Nearly all participants currently utilize, or intend to utilize, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which directly back their shares with the underlying asset and trade publicly like equities.
What Public Filings Show
The group of 15 subjects was selected by Bitwise, which itself offers cryptocurrency investment vehicles to institutional clients.
According to regulatory disclosures, not all major holders maintained their positions. The Harvard endowment reduced its holding in a Bitcoin ETF by 43% during the opening quarter of 2026, as detailed in its quarterly 13F filing tracking United States equity holdings. It remains unconfirmed whether Harvard was part of the Bitwise interview cohort.
Conversely, the two sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi maintained their entire positions in IBIT throughout the market downturn in the second quarter.
Bitwise noted that public reports fail to capture the full scope of institutional participation, as certain investors deploy alternative structures that bypass public reporting requirements. Governance mandates, operational hurdles, and reputational considerations were highlighted as the primary obstacles preventing larger position sizes.
With Bitcoin changing hands at approximately $84,534 at the time of publication, Bitwise anticipates that the majority of institutions will integrate cryptocurrency into their portfolios within a five-year horizon.