Following the debuts of spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. two years ago, it wasn’t surprising to see more advisors allocate to cryptocurrency in client portfolios.
Helped by more crypto ETFs coming to market and more familiar, trusted asset managers expanding related lineups, advisors upped client exposure to digital currency in 2025. As noted in the latest “Bitwise/VettaFi 2026 Benchmark Survey of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Crypto Assets,” nearly a third of advisors allocated a portion of client capital to crypto last year, up from 22% in 2024.
“Fifty-six percent (56%) of advisors reported owning crypto in their personal portfolios, marking the highest level of ownership since the survey began in 2018,” according to the survey. “Forty-two percent (42%) of advisors said they are able to buy crypto in client accounts, a significant increase from 35% in 2024 and 19% in 2023.”
In other words, access is expanding and ETFs are playing a big part in that encouraging theme, but there’s room for growth.
Advisors Embracing Crypto, But Devil’s in the Details
Yes, advisors are clearly leaning more heavily into cryptocurrency, but even with the aforementioned spot bitcoin ETFs and many other comparable products on the market, many RIAs aren’t accessing digital currencies in purest form.
“Among potential crypto asset ETPs, advisors were most interested in index funds (42%),” as noted in the Bitwise/VettaFi study. “When asked what crypto exposure they were most interested in allocating to in 2026, advisors showed clear preference for crypto equity ETFs.”
Translation: The default options for many advisors when it comes to directing client capital to crypto are crypto-correlated stocks or ETFs that are presumably heavy on equities such as Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN).
Using Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency broker, as the example, there are nearly 200 ETFs holding the stock and those with the largest weights, such as the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF (FDIG), do fit the bill as crypto-correlated.
Still, it will be interesting to see if in 2026 advisors gravitate more toward spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs and the like.
Advisors Not Standing Pat with Crypto
For the HODLers out there, the survey features more good news, including the fact that nearly all (99%) of the queried advisors that said they owned crypto for clients last year plan to at least maintain if not boost those allocations this year.
“Crypto’s future has always depended on what financial advisors think of it,” said Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan. “They are trusted guides to millions of families and responsible for stewarding trillions of dollars in wealth. And in 2025, advisors embraced crypto like never before. As crypto moves farther into the mainstream, we’re excited to see surging interest and enthusiasm from a demographic that has always played a central role in crypto’s future.”
With Bitcoin and others perking up to start 2026 and new, vibrant cryptocurrency use cases emerging, it’s reasonable to expect that when the 2026 edition of the survey is released in a year, the aforementioned percentages will be high. How pure advisors’ crypto allocations are remains to be seen.
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