Sentiment around digital assets has changed again among the world’s largest allocators, according to Ron Biscardi, CEO of iConnections, which hosts one of the world’s largest capital introduction conferences.
Biscardi, who has spent more than 25 years in the alternative investments industry and runs a platform representing more than $55 trillion in assets, has a front-row seat. His firm tracks thousands of meetings between fund managers and institutional investors each year. That data shows how quickly sentiment can change.
After a couple of “difficult” years following the collapse of the cryptocurrency market following the collapse of FTX in 2022, interest began to stabilize at last year’s conference, he recalls. “[In 2025] “We started to see funds that wanted to come back, that wanted to spend some money,” he said. Optimism around a more crypto-friendly regulatory stance in Washington has helped, even if progress has been slow.
“I feel that what we are seeing now at the event [this year] “It’s a more normal experience,” Biscardi said. “It’s not extremely crazy, but it’s not [like] ‘I don’t want to go near that.’”
A change of tone
More than 75 digital asset funds participated in this year’s event, generating approximately 750 meetings between managers and allocators, a level comparable to 2022, when interest in cryptocurrencies skyrocketed before the FTX collapse. Nearly a quarter of limited partners on the iConnections platform now indicate interest in digital asset strategies, reinforcing that cryptocurrencies have become an established foundation within alternatives rather than a fringe allocation.
Family offices represent the largest cohort of LPs expressing interest, consistent with their history of supporting emerging and innovation-driven asset classes.
And this trend has been growing in recent years. While some family offices remain cautious about the asset, many traditional wealth managers are under increasing pressure to deliver digital assets to wealthy clients, particularly in crypto hotspots such as Dubai, Switzerland and Singapore.
This interest is very much alive despite the crypto winter, with the price of bitcoin. It is down almost 25% since the beginning of the year and its market capitalization has lost more than a trillion value since October’s all-time high. Shares of popular crypto companies, such as Coinbase (COIN) or Strategy (MSTR), are also trading significantly lower this year, underperforming most other tech stocks.
Biscardi, however, believes that digital asset managers are “very, very close to achieving institutional legitimacy.” Bitcoin, he said, has already crossed that line, but altcoins are close. “The last piece is really the regulatory framework that allows them to do it safely.”
For investment managers, that issue dominates. “Regulatory hurdles are number one,” Biscardi said. “It always comes back to that.”
Big allocators, he noted, are fiduciaries. “It’s not their money, they’re fiduciaries of other people’s money, and it could be a very interesting category, but they’re just not going to allocate there until they can tell their board that they’re doing it responsibly and safely.”
The tone of the debate has also changed. In 2022, some investors were still wondering if cryptocurrencies were real or a Ponzi scheme. “I don’t hear any of that anymore,” Biscardi said.
Indeed, some traditionally conservative equity funds, for example, have intervened. Endowments, which tend to focus on long-term stability and avoiding sharp swings into new asset classes, have begun to be allocated to bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds. The idea is not to overhaul portfolios, but to add measured exposure that could boost returns in years when crypto markets perform well, especially as many investors expect stocks to generate more modest gains than they have in the past decade.
Still a risk asset
However, allocators treat Bitcoin “much more like a risk asset” than a store of value. “Bitcoin just hasn’t behaved that way,” he said, pointing to its correlation with stocks rather than gold during market tensions.
Similarly, direct purchasing of tokens remains uncommon among institutions. Instead, hear more about ETFs and fund structures. Limited partners depend on general partners to choose specific currencies. “LPs that get bought into the space really expect GPs to make those decisions.”
What is not unusual is for crypto companies to invest in publicizing their products and services. According to Biscardi, sponsorship numbers saw a substantial increase at this year’s event, with companies such as BitGo (BTGO), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Ripple and Blockstream holding top-tier sponsor status.
Read more: Bitcoin is stagnant, but JPMorgan says new legislation could be the final spark
