• The biggest question in crypto at the moment is whether institutional investors will allocate to the asset class in a big way, the report said.
• Bitwise noted that the total number of institutional investors holding bitcoin ETFs rose 14% in the second quarter.
• Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been adopted by institutions at the fastest rate of any ETF in history, the asset manager said.

Bitcoin's (BTC) price fell 12% in the second quarter, but this didn't stop institutional investors from significantly increasing their allocation in BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), asset manager Bitwise said in a report on Monday.

"The biggest question in crypto right now is whether institutions and professional investors will allocate to crypto in a major way," wrote Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan.

The aggregate number of institutional investors holding bitcoin ETFs in the second quarter rose 14% from the first quarter, to 1,100 from 965, the report noted.

These investors' share of total assets under management (AUM) of bitcoin ETFs also grew to 21.15% from 18.74%, Bitwise said, adding that institutions ended the quarter holding $11 billion in BTC ETFs.

"This is a great sign," Hougan wrote, "if institutions will buy bitcoin when prices are volatile, imagine what could happen in a bull market."

Bitwise noted criticism that bitcoin ETFs are predominantly owned by retail investors, an assertion it says is simply untrue. It observed that these ETFs have been adopted by institutions "at the fastest rate of any ETF in history."

Most ETFs build momentum over time, and bitcoin ETF inflows are expected to be bigger in 2025 than 2024, and larger in 2026 than 2025, the note said.

"The institutions are coming, and they're coming in size," the report added.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs (GS) disclosed that it held positions in seven out of the eleven bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., according to a 13F filing earlier this month.

Read more: Goldman Sachs Holds Over $400M in Bitcoin ETFs