CoinShares Survey Finds Fund Managers Reawakening Bitcoin Bets as Sentiment Improves

Institutional fund managers are “quietly reawakening interest in digital assets, led by Bitcoin” as market sentiment improves and the pathway for regulated exposure broadens, according to CoinShares’ April 2026 Digital Asset Fund Manager Survey.

“CoinShares, the $9 billion asset manager, is set to extend its influence in Europe”

BFM

The survey says 26 institutions collectively manage about $1.3 trillion, with allocations “hovering around 1% of assets under management,” described by CoinShares as a typical entry sizing in a de-risking environment.

BFM

CoinShares’ survey reports that about 32% of respondents already hold Bitcoin and around 25% have exposure to Ether, while Solana and other ecosystems show “firmer but still tentative uptake.”

A separate CoinShares survey cited by Cryptopolitan says diversification and client demand now drive 63% of institutional crypto allocations, with speculation falling to 15%.

Cryptopolitan also links the shift to Michael Saylor floating Bitcoin sales to fund Strategy’s $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations after a $12.54 billion Q1 loss, and it says Saylor told Strategy’s Q1 2026 earnings call, “We will probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it.”

CoinShares’ upbeat tone is tied to inflows into crypto investment products, with the article saying exchange-traded products tracking digital assets attracted about $1.2 billion in inflows through April 27 and that total inflows in that stretch were roughly $3.9 billion.

The same account says the momentum extended into early May, with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reporting nearly $1 billion in net inflows in a single week as BTC traded back above the $80,000 level, citing SoSoValue data.

Capital.fr

CoinShares’ survey is also reinforced by a separate study conducted by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon, which the article says found that about 73% of institutional investors plan to increase their digital asset exposure within the year, with most expecting crypto prices to move higher over the next 12 months.

In Capital.fr’s interview, Jean-Marie Mognetti discusses Valkyrie’s U.S. ETF launch and says, “This shows Americans’ knack for bringing products to market,” while also describing the integration phase and stating, “We will not spend millions on TV advertising.”

Capital.fr adds that Valkyrie’s Bitcoin fund has over $500 million in assets under management as of June 21, and it frames the U.S. Ether ETF decision as a surprise from an intellectual standpoint because “the SEC (the U.S. financial regulator) changed its mind overnight.”

CoinShares’ institutional push is paired with regulatory expansion in Europe, where BFM reports the firm secured the European MiCA license from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) through its French subsidiary, CoinShares Asset Management.

“Fund managers identified Bitcoin as having the strongest growth outlook among digital assets, followed by Ether and Solana”

Cointelegraph

BFM says this makes CoinShares the first asset manager to obtain authorization to operate across Europe, and it quotes Jean‑Marie Mognetti saying, “For too long, asset managers operating in the cryptocurrency space have been confined to partial or ad hoc regulatory frameworks.”

BFM also states that until now MiFID had limited CoinShares to managing cryptocurrencies through traditional, conventional financial products, and it notes that 47 firms have obtained the MiCA authorization.

In the same broader regulatory context, MEXC’s account ties institutional adoption to “the continued expansion of spot Bitcoin ETFs,” describing it as shaping the adoption path while managers pivot from legacy altcoins toward newer DeFi protocols and emerging blockchain sectors.

Capital.fr further frames a potential U.S. “Crypto Bill” as a bipartisan bill nicknamed “Crypto Bill,” which would regulate cryptocurrencies by classifying most of them as digital commodities under the supervision of the commodities regulator (the CFTC), and it quotes Mognetti calling it “the victory of Christopher Giancarlo.”