Institutional investors may prove to be more resilient Bitcoin holders than expected, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, who says ETF flow data suggests professional investors largely held on to their positions during the crypto market’s steep decline.
“The best evidence we have is in the ETF market,” Hougan said. “Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated approximately $60 billion in net flows since their launch in January 2024 through October 2025. Since October 2025, prices have declined by 50%, but we have seen less than $10 billion in outflows from ETFs.”
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted around $60 billion in net inflows between their launch in January 2024 and October 2025, Hougan told CoinDesk. Since then, the cryptocurrency’s price has fallen about 50%, but ETFs have seen less than $10 billion in outflows.
“In other words, despite a severe bear market, professional investors have proven to be ‘diamond hands’ in Bitcoin,” he said. Hougan’s Bitwise offers a suite of digital asset investment products, including the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB). BITB has just under $3 billion in assets under management. The leading spot Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), has over $55 billion in assets under management.
Bitcoin remains a “non-consensus asset”
Hougan said the data challenges a common criticism that institutional investors, often seen as more sensitive to macroeconomic shocks and liquidity cycles, might quickly sell their bitcoin exposure during periods of market stress. However, he added, the opposite dynamic could be at work now.
“Despite its progress in recent years, bitcoin remains a non-consensus asset,” he said. “Institutional investors buying Bitcoin today continue to stand out from their peers.”
This career risk means that institutions investing in bitcoin today tend to have unusually strong conviction in the asset, said the CIO of Bitwise, a San Francisco-based company with more than $15 billion in client assets under management.
This career risk means that institutions investing in bitcoin today tend to have unusually strong conviction in the asset, said the CIO of Bitwise, a San Francisco-based company with more than $15 billion in client assets under management.
“As a result, institutional investors who decide to allocate have very high conviction,” Hougan said. “They are not 51% convinced that Bitcoin is a good idea; they are 80 or 90%. Otherwise, they would not take the risk.”
Because of this dynamic, he said he believes institutional capital could remain “very sticky” even during volatile market cycles “for the foreseeable future.”
The $1 million BTC question
Hougan said the behavior of institutional investors during a downturn bolsters his long-term outlook for $1 million in bitcoin, which he doubled down on during the interview.
“The crazy thing about my million-dollar prediction is that it’s not crazy at all,” Hougan said. “All you need for bitcoin to reach $1 million is for the global store of value market to continue growing as it has over the last 20 years and for bitcoin to become a small but important part of that market.”
For Hougan, the resilience of institutional investors in the face of volatile market cycles is part of this broader maturation process.
“All it takes is what happened over the last 10 to 20 years to continue to happen over the next 10 years, and we will get there,” he said.
