Institutions Want Crypto Exposure - Just Not Crypto Itself

Ernst & Young, one of the world’s largest professional services firms (audit and market analysis), recently conducted a survey of major institutional investors - funds, banks, and similar players - to understand how they view cryptocurrencies.

You can read the full results here. I’d like to highlight a few takeaways.

First, 73% of respondents plan to increase their crypto allocations in 2026. Second, 49% have strengthened their risk management, meaning they are not buying crypto purely for speculation. According to the survey, demand is growing for secure custody of assets rather than for quick resale at higher prices.

At a time when many influencers seem increasingly disillusioned with crypto, are large funds and banks actually finding something valuable in it - enough to accumulate and hold?

But one detail in the survey changes the entire picture. For institutional investors, the primary gateway to crypto is ETFs. 66% of respondents mean ETFs when they talk about “crypto exposure” in their portfolios.

And that means they still don’t quite get it.

An ETF has nothing to do with true ownership of cryptocurrency. The only thing ETFs and crypto really share is price exposure.

So it seems institutions are still entering crypto for one reason: fiat-denominated profit. One more data point from the survey supports this: 74% of respondents expect crypto prices to rise over the next year.

Well then - let’s wait for the rally. Smart money says it’s coming.