CoinShares Survey: Bitcoin Leads Growth Outlook as Allocators Cite Diversification

Fund managers overseeing approximately $642 billion raised their average digital asset allocation to 1.3%, up from 1.2% in July 2026, according to CoinShares' October 2026 Digital Asset Fund Manager Survey, published November 10, 2026. The poll surveyed 28 investors and found Bitcoin holding the strongest growth outlook of any digital asset, while sentiment toward Ethereum and Solana improved slightly.

The motive behind the incremental buying has shifted. Diversification emerged as the primary reason for investing, cited by 40% of respondents. Speculative motives fell below 9% and ranked fifth among the reasons managers gave. CoinShares noted the diversification shift was especially visible among family offices and individual investors, and attributed the rise in average allocation to that focus rather than to speculative appetite.

How are institutions positioned?

Bitcoin and Ethereum together accounted for 47% of portfolio positioning responses. Bitcoin ranked first for growth expectations, with managers viewing it as the asset with the most room to run. Ethereum and Solana both registered modest sentiment improvements compared with earlier editions of the survey.

The survey, which CoinShares has run quarterly since 2021 to track institutional attitudes toward digital assets, also captured a rotation below the majors:

• Respondents pulled back from multi-asset strategies and from some older altcoins.
• Preferences tilted toward newer names: Hyperliquid, SUI, Uniswap, NEAR, Aave and Chainlink drew increased interest.
• Uniswap and Aave are decentralized finance protocols for trading and lending; Chainlink supplies outside data to blockchains; NEAR and SUI are general-purpose networks competing for developers and users.

What does the allocation shift mean?

The headline number still describes a small footprint. An average allocation of 1.3% means the vast majority of surveyed portfolios remain in traditional assets. The 47% combined share of Bitcoin and Ethereum in positioning responses suggests the majors will likely keep absorbing the bulk of institutional flows.

The rotation toward newer tokens points to a second, separate dynamic. Interest in Hyperliquid, SUI and NEAR indicates institutions will take targeted bets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum rather than spread exposure evenly across the market.

The pullback from multi-asset strategies hints at a preference for asset selection over breadth. Managers appear to prefer choosing specific assets over buying broad baskets that bundle projects of varying quality.

The next quarterly edition, due in early 2027, will test whether the one-tenth-of-a-percentage-point quarterly gain marks the start of a steady diversification-driven trend or a plateau in institutional exposure.