CoinShares survey: Bitcoin leads growth outlook as Ethereum sentiment improves

Institutional money managers still have a clear favorite in crypto, and it is the same one they have always had. CoinShares’ latest fund manager survey found that Bitcoin holds the strongest growth outlook of any digital asset, while sentiment toward Ethereum and Solana improved slightly.

The more interesting detail sits underneath the headline numbers. The professionals surveyed say they are buying crypto mainly to diversify their portfolios. Speculation has slipped down the list of reasons.

What the survey found

CoinShares published its October 2026 Digital Asset Fund Manager Survey on November 10, 2026. The poll drew 28 investors who together oversee approximately $642 billion in assets under management.

The average digital asset allocation among respondents rose to 1.3%, up from 1.2% in July 2026. That is a gain of one-tenth of a percentage point over a single quarter.

Bitcoin and Ethereum together accounted for 47% of portfolio positioning responses.

Bitcoin came out on top for growth expectations. Fund managers see it as the asset with the most room to run.

Ethereum and Solana get a modest lift

Ethereum and Solana both saw a slight improvement in sentiment compared with earlier editions of the survey.

The survey also captured a shift in where managers are looking beyond the majors. Respondents pulled back from multi-asset strategies and from some older altcoins.

In their place, preferences tilted toward newer names. The survey flagged Hyperliquid, $SUI, Uniswap, $NEAR, Aave and Chainlink as tokens drawing increased interest.

Uniswap and Aave are decentralized finance protocols for trading and lending. Chainlink supplies outside data to blockchains, while $NEAR and $SUI are general-purpose networks competing for developers and users.

Diversification overtakes speculation

The most telling finding concerns motive. Diversification emerged as the primary reason for investing, cited by 40% of respondents.

CoinShares noted this shift was especially visible among family offices and individual investors.

Speculative motives, by contrast, fell below 9% and ranked fifth among the reasons managers gave.

The survey attributes the small rise in average allocation to this diversification focus rather than to speculative appetite.

Background on the series

CoinShares has run this survey on a quarterly basis since 2021. The series is designed to track how institutional attitudes toward digital assets evolve over time.

What this means for investors

The first takeaway is that institutional crypto exposure remains small. An average allocation of 1.3% means the vast majority of these portfolios still sit in traditional assets.

The dominance of Bitcoin and Ethereum, at 47% of positioning responses, suggests the majors will likely keep absorbing the bulk of institutional flows.

The rotation toward newer tokens is worth watching separately. Interest in names like Hyperliquid, $SUI and $NEAR indicates that institutions are willing to take targeted bets beyond the majors.

The pullback from multi-asset strategies hints at something else. Managers appear to prefer choosing specific assets over buying broad baskets that bundle together projects of varying quality.