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At least one sovereign wealth fund sells gold to buy Bitcoin, Bitwise reports
Bitwise's first institutional crypto adoption report finds no surveyed institution sold Bitcoin during a 50% drawdown, with one sovereign fund liquidating gold to build its position
At least one sovereign wealth fund has been selling gold and foreign exchange reserves to fund Bitcoin purchases, according to Bitwise Asset Management’s first Institutional Crypto Adoption Report. The finding, disclosed by Bitwise Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen on September 29, represents one of the clearest examples yet of a nation-state investment vehicle treating Bitcoin as a direct substitute for traditional reserve assets.
The report is based on interviews with senior investment professionals across 15 large institutions conducted between March and April 2026. Its most striking conclusion: during a roughly 50% drawdown from approximately $125K in Q4 2025 to around $60K in Q2 2026, not a single institution surveyed reported reducing its Bitcoin holdings.
Buying the dip, at sovereign scale
Every institution holding crypto assets in the survey held Bitcoin as its first, largest, and longest-held position. Crypto allocations across the surveyed institutions ranged from 0.5% to 13% of total investable assets. Most opted for a more restrained 1-2% allocation. Sovereign wealth funds sat at the lower end of that spectrum, constrained by multi-layered governance frameworks that make any novel asset class harder to push through committee.
Bitcoin and gold: complements, not competitors
Most institutions in the survey explicitly treat both assets as hedges against fiat currency debasement. Gold ETF inflows remained stable during the period, which undercuts any narrative about a mass exodus from the yellow metal. The one sovereign fund that sold gold to buy Bitcoin appears to be an outlier in degree, not in philosophy.
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ETF inflows as a structural shock absorber
One of the more interesting claims in the report concerns Bitcoin ETF flows during the drawdown period. Weekly inflows reached as high as $2.5B, which Bitwise credits with making the decline shallower than prior cycles.
It’s worth noting the selection bias inherent in the report. Bitwise interviewed 15 institutions, all of which already had some crypto exposure. The sample doesn’t tell us anything about the thousands of institutional investors who looked at Bitcoin and passed.
What this means for Bitcoin’s institutional trajectory
The allocation range of 0.5% to 13% provides a useful map of where institutional adoption currently sits. At 1-2%, most institutions are still in “toe in the water” territory. The fund allocating 13% is an aggressive outlier.