Digital Asset Fund Manager Survey - April 2025

Bitcoin Dominance Grows as Diversification Drives Demand

• Bitcoin Leads Amid Shifting Sentiment: Investor preference for Bitcoin has strengthened post-US election, with 63% of survey respondents now holding it—up 15 percentage points since January. Altcoins are being increasingly sidelined.

• Portfolio Allocations at Year-Highs: Digital asset weightings have risen to 1.8%, the highest in a year, driven by both price appreciation and improving sentiment. Institutional positions have grown to an average of 2.5%.

• Diversification Tops Investment Rationale: Diversification is now the leading reason for digital asset investment, overtaking access to distributed ledger technology. Speculation is rising but remains a secondary motive.

• Volatility Perception Gap Persists: Despite Bitcoin’s lower volatility relative to equities, both new and existing investors continue to cite it as the top concern—highlighting a disconnect between perception and market reality.

Little has changed since January in terms of which digital assets have the most compelling growth outlook. Investors continue to favour Bitcoin by a wide margin following the US Election and related executive orders. 

Ethereum remains a strong second favourite despite recent weak price action. However, we have observed a growing number of investors exploring alternative altcoins, indicating a shift in focus away from the traditional set.

Digital asset weighting in portfolios has risen to 1.8%, the highest for a year, we believe this is combination of price action and improved sentiment in the asset class, as highlighted in our weekly fund flows report.

While retail investors (Individual) have the largest positions we have seen institutional portfolios rise to an average position of 2.5%, backing work we have done on 13f filing data.

Bitcoin is dominating the average investor portfolio, with 63% of survey respondents now having it in their portfolio, a 15-percentage point rise from the survey in January this year.

We have also seen a decline in other assets, suggesting investor are shunning altcoins in favour of bitcoin.

Fundamental investment rationales continue to drive investment decisions, with diversification now ranking first, rising from last quarter to account for 30% of responses. Access to distributed ledger technology remains stable in second place. Client demand has declined, likely due to the recent price correction. Notably, speculative motives have increased but remain third among investment reasons, challenging common perceptions of it being the core reason to invest.

Among those who have not yet invested, volatility is still cited as the primary reason - despite Bitcoin currently exhibiting lower volatility than equities. We believe this highlights a significant gap between perception and reality.

Regulatory concerns remain unchanged, while a small number of respondents view the asset class as lacking strong fundamentals. Reputational risk also continues to be a key concern.

For investors who have already invested, volatility is also cited as a key risk—surprisingly so, given Bitcoin’s relative stability during the most recent crisis. We had expected that regulatory and political concerns would ease following the Trump executive orders in late January, but this has not yet materialised.

Meanwhile, concerns about Bitcoin’s vulnerability to quantum computing—prominent in the last survey—have since declined.

Despite the growing risk of stagflation and the possibility of an emergency rate cut due to the potential economic fallout from tariffs, an increasing number of respondents view the US Federal Reserve as being on the right track—though a significant portion remain undecided.

About our survey

The April 2025 Survey drew 32 responses from investors who cover ~US$478bn of assets under management.