Institutional investors may be proving to be more resilient bitcoin holders than critics expected, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, who says ETF flow data suggests professional investors have largely held onto their positions during the cryptocurrency market’s sharp decline.
“The best evidence we have is in the ETF market,” Hougan said. “Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated approximately $60 billion in net flows from their launch in January 2024 to October 2025. Since October 2025, prices are down 50%, but we have seen less than $10 billion in ETF outflows.”
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted approximately $60 billion in net inflows between their launch in January 2024 and October 2025, Hougan told CoinDesk. Since then, the price of the cryptocurrency has fallen around 50%, however, ETFs have seen less than $10 billion in capital outflows.
“In other words, despite a punishing 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 more than $55 billion in assets under management.
Bitcoin remains a “non-consensus asset”
Hougan said the data challenges a common criticism that institutional investors, often considered more sensitive to macroeconomic shocks and liquidity cycles, could sell their bitcoin exposure quickly during periods of market stress. However, he added, the opposite dynamic may currently be at play.
“Despite its progress in recent years, bitcoin remains a non-consensus asset,” he said. “Institutional investors buying bitcoin today are still taking risks and standing out among their peers.”
That professional risk means that institutions allocating bitcoin today tend to have an unusually strong conviction in the asset, said the CIO of Bitwise, a San Francisco-based company that manages more than $15 billion in client assets.
That professional risk means that institutions allocating bitcoin today tend to have an unusually strong conviction in the asset, said the CIO of Bitwise, a San Francisco-based company that manages more than $15 billion in client assets.
“As a result, institutional investors who decide to make investments have very high conviction,” Hougan said. “They’re not 51% convinced that Bitcoin is a good idea; they’re 80% or 90% convinced. Otherwise, they wouldn’t take the risk.”
Because of that dynamic, he said he believes institutional capital could remain “very tight” even during volatile market cycles “for the foreseeable future.”
The million dollar question in BTC
Hougan said the behavior of institutional investors during downturns strengthens his long-term outlook for $1 million in bitcoin, which he doubled down on in the interview.
“The wildest thing about my million-dollar prediction is that it’s not crazy at all,” Hougan said. “All it takes for Bitcoin to reach $1 million is for the global store of value market to continue growing as it has for the past 20 years and for Bitcoin to become a minor but important part of that market.”
For Hougan, the resilience of institutional investors through volatile market cycles is part of that broader maturation process.
“It just takes what has been happening for the last 10 to 20 years to continue happening for the next 10 years, and we will get there,” he said.
