Wealth management professionals are showing growing interest in digital assets, even as most have yet to put client money to work in the space. That mixed picture emerged after Bitwise Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen and Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan spoke to a room of about 400 wealth managers.
Rasmussen later shared the informal poll results from that session.
Two-thirds of the audience, or 67 percent, said they still have no crypto exposure in client portfolios.
At the same time, 60 percent indicated they intend to add an allocation within the next 12 months.
An identical share said they expect crypto prices to finish the year higher than current levels.The session itself ranged across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Hyperliquid, stablecoins, tokenization, and the evolving regulatory backdrop.
The numbers reflect the views of the people in that particular room rather than a statistically representative sample of the entire wealth-management industry.
Even so, they point to a familiar pattern: curiosity and planned action running ahead of actual deployment.
That gap is consistent with larger industry data.
The separate Bitwise/VettaFi 2026 Benchmark Survey of financial advisors found that 32 percent allocated to crypto in client accounts during 2025, up from 22 percent the year before.
Access has improved as well, with 42 percent of advisors now able to buy crypto for clients, compared with 35 percent in 2024.
Among portfolios that already hold digital assets, a larger share now carry allocations above 2 percent.
The latest audience poll therefore sits at an interesting intersection.
Wealth managers appear more willing to discuss Bitcoin, alternative layer-1 networks, on-chain cash equivalents, and tokenized real-world assets. Many also sound constructive on near-term prices.
Yet operational, compliance, and firm-level restrictions still keep the majority on the sidelines for now.
That combination of rising intent and limited current exposure is why firms such as Bitwise continue to spend time educating traditional allocators.
Advisors who already hold crypto in their own accounts have historically been more likely to introduce it to clients once product access and internal policy catch up.
The latest room of 400 managers suggests that pipeline of future demand remains intact, even if most of the capital has not yet moved.
The research findings also highlight how conversations inside wealth-management offices have broadened.
Questions are no longer limited to Bitcoin as digital gold.
Tokenization, stablecoin settlement, and specific networks now feature in the same meetings.
That expansion of topics often precedes a change in actual portfolio construction.
For now, the headline remains straightforward.
A clear majority of the wealth managers who heard the Bitwise presentation have not allocated to crypto. A similarly clear majority say they plan to do so over the coming year and expect prices to rise by year-end. The distance between those two statements is the story the industry is watching.