Bitcoin is beginning to chip away at gold allocations
Bitcoin has not replaced gold in institutional portfolios. It is, however, beginning to serve a similar function. BrefCrypto had already observed that Bitcoin’s correlation with gold reached its highest level since 2020, while its link to the Nasdaq weakened.
Bitwise’s survey now provides qualitative confirmation.
All of the investors surveyed who hold crypto also hold Bitcoin. For almost all of them, BTC is their first, largest and longest-standing exposure to the sector. Crypto allocations generally account for 1% to 2% of investable assets, with a much wider range of 0.5% to 13% depending on the institution.
Above all, several investors explicitly associate Bitcoin with gold as a hedge against the depreciation of fiat currencies.
One sovereign wealth fund went further, telling Bitwise that it was funding its crypto allocation by selling foreign-exchange reserves and gold.
That statement changes a great deal. For this investor, Bitcoin no longer appears to be competing merely with technology stocks or speculative assets. The capital is coming directly from a pocket reserved for monetary and reserve assets.
The Bitwise institutional report nevertheless remains anonymous. It is impossible to identify the sovereign wealth fund involved, its country or the exact size of the shift.
One case. Not yet a global trend.
None of the 15 investors sold
The survey’s other finding is almost as interesting.
Bitwise interviewed investment leaders at 15 major institutions between March and April 2026: public pension funds, foundations, university endowments, family offices, consultants, companies and sovereign wealth funds.
The period was particularly difficult for Bitcoin.
BTC had fallen from nearly $125,000 to around $60,000, a drop of more than 50%. Yet none of the 15 institutions reduced its crypto allocation. Several increased their positions.
This is precisely the range that BrefCrypto recently put back at the center of the debate with the $58,000 to $60,000 level considered a red line for Bitcoin.
Even more surprisingly, none of the investors surveyed cited a price decline as a sufficient reason to sell.
The exit criteria are instead fundamental: invalidation of the investment thesis, a major regulatory setback or a credibility crisis affecting the industry as a whole.
Ethereum and Solana do not receive the same treatment. Some institutions hold them, but with smaller allocations, shorter time horizons and a clear requirement: the networks must demonstrate that their adoption is genuinely creating value for ETH or SOL.
Bitcoin is different.
For these investors, it is already the benchmark crypto asset.
Ryan Rasmussen goes even further in an interview published this week: he believes that $60,000 may have formed the cycle bottom. That remains his analysis, not a conclusion guaranteed by the survey.
Central banks are still buying gold
It would therefore be tempting to write that sovereign wealth funds are beginning to abandon gold in favor of Bitcoin.
The data do not yet support going that far.
The World Gold Council estimates that central banks held around 38,600 tonnes of gold at the end of 2025, valued at roughly $5 trillion. In the first quarter of 2026, gold represented approximately 29% of allocated global reserves. Its annual survey primarily shows that 84% of central banks surveyed believe gold’s share of global reserves will increase further over the next five years.
Bitcoin is therefore not yet driving gold out of vaults.
What is changing is more subtle: some major institutions are beginning to view both assets as responses to the same concern—the depreciation of money.
This shift is already echoed by much more traditional asset managers. In South Africa, Peregrine Capital likewise believes that a small Bitcoin allocation can have a place in a portfolio, precisely because of its scarcity and its conceptual proximity to gold.
The Bitwise report covers only 15 institutions selected by an asset manager that itself markets crypto products. It is impossible to extrapolate their behavior to all sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and foundations worldwide.
One development, however, is difficult to ignore.
During a decline of more than 50%, these investors did not sell. Some bought more. And at least one sovereign wealth fund has begun funding its crypto exposure by drawing directly on its gold and foreign-exchange reserves.
Bitcoin does not yet replace institutional gold. For some of the world’s largest investors, it is now drawing from the same pool of capital.
