Digital asset fund manager survey - May 2026

Fund managers stay cautious but more fundamentally driven

• Bitcoin remains the leading asset for growth expectations, though sentiment has modestly rotated toward Ethereum and Solana since the last survey

• Portfolio allocations remain low at on average, with a 1% median reflecting typical entry sizing, set against a broader backdrop of investor de-risking

• Investment rationale continues to shift structurally, with diversification and client demand now dominant, while speculative motives have declined sharply

• Institutional constraints and regulation are the primary barriers to further allocation, while investor preferences are evolving away from legacy altcoins toward newer DeFi and emerging protocols

Bitcoin remains the digital asset with the most compelling growth outlook according to our fund manager survey. However, compared to our previous survey three months ago, there has been a modest shift in expectations away from Bitcoin and towards Ethereum and Solana.

Growth expectations remain heavily concentrated in the top four assets, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and to a lesser extent XRP.

Digital asset allocations in portfolios have declined further to just 0.1%. This is a weighted average and is skewed by a higher-than-usual proportion of institutional investors in the survey. The median allocation remains 1%, which aligns with client discussions, where a 1% position is typically the default starting point for initial investment.

It also comes as a time when most investors have been de-risking, reducing allocation to other risk assets.

Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the favourites in portfolios, comprising 58% of responses, and in recent quarters this figure has risen. 

We are increasingly seeing less of the “old guard” digital assets such as Cardano and Polkadot, instead investors are diversifying into other assets such as Aave, Sui and Tron, while some are choosing Defi related projects.

Diversification and client demand remain the primary motivations for investing, and have increased substantially since the last survey, and now comprise 63% of the rationale for adding digital assets to portfolios. This was just 36% only 2 years ago while speculation represented the largest portion of this survey question 2 years ago and has now fallen to 15%, highlighting the how quickly the asset class is maturing and is establishing an identity based on fundamentals.

Corporate restrictions have soared to the top of the list of reasons preventing investors from adding to positions in digital assets. The far larger cohort of institutional investors may be the reason for this, who continue to have legacy systems preventing investment.

Regulation remains very high on the list, unsurprising given the ongoing Clarity Act wrangles in the Senate.

Reputational risk and volatility have fallen as reasons not to invest, but remain elevated.

Regulation concerns remain top of the list for those who have invested, again this doesn’t surprise us given the ongoing gyrations surrounding the Clarity Act. Political concerns have risen

Quantum risks remain an ongoing concern in client meetings and is a likely reason for many choosing this risk point.

An increasing number of survey participants see the US Federal Reserve as having not made a policy error, although the majority sit and the fence believing it is inconclusive for now.  We have seen a flip-flopping of view on this, likely due to the uncertainty around inflation expectations.

ABOUT OUR SURVEY: The April 2026 Survey drew 26 responses from investors who cover ~US$1.3 trillion of assets under management.