Wealthy crypto holders buy for appreciation even as most call bitcoin a debasement hedge

Belief and motive come apart inside the same sample. A respondent can hold that bitcoin protects against a debased currency and still give appreciation or diversification as the reason for owning digital assets. On CoinShares' numbers, most holders did exactly that ^[3][5]. Speculation ranked last and 6% called themselves short-term traders ^[6], so the return case these investors make is a long-horizon one. In the US, UK, France and Germany, 33% to 40% ranked crypto above equities and real estate on expected long-term performance ^[9].

The gap has other explanations. The motive question covered digital assets in general and did not single out bitcoin ^[4], and one in five crypto holders owns no bitcoin at all ^[7], so some of the growth answers may describe ether or other tokens. Diversification, the second leading answer, is itself a protective motive. And the sponsor, CoinShares, is an asset manager focused on digital assets ^[2], polling a sample in which most people already own them ^[25].

I'd still expect the requests advisers field to be about returns, or rather about size, because a return thesis arrives as a percentage of the portfolio. At a 10% average, an investor at the survey's $500,000 floor holds $50,000 in crypto ^[24]. HSBC's 2026 snapshot of almost 10,000 affluent and high-net-worth investors in 10 markets found a mean of 6%, down a point on 2025 ^[10]. CoinShares' average is 4 percentage points higher ^[22]. HSBC polled from Jan. 6 to Feb. 6, a stretch in which bitcoin peaked just above $97,000 before falling below $70,000, according to Bitcoin.com News ^[11]. Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and Edelman Financial Engines ^[20], told Cointelegraph that his research finds allocations of 2% to 5% far more common ^[26]. Against that range the CoinShares figure is two to five times larger ^[21].

Edelman doubts the survey's figure and then recommends more than it: 10% for conservative portfolios, 25% for moderate ones and 40% for aggressive ones ^[15]. His moderate tier is five to 12.5 times the range he calls common ^[23]. "As the asset class matures, 10% allocations or higher will become the norm," Edelman said. "The sooner people do that, the better off they will be." ^[16]

On why advisers lag, he said many lack the knowledge or the incentive to learn the asset class, and "most are getting little to no encouragement from their firms." ^[17]

The CoinShares survey ran from May 11 to June 5, after the February sell-off, and in all seven countries more respondents said that sell-off made them more likely to invest than less ^[1][13]. HSBC asked a broader population: 45% of its participants planned to add crypto in 2026 and 40% planned to hold steady ^[12], against CoinShares' figures for current holders only ^[8]. The growth reading fails if a deeper drawdown pushes hedging up the list of primary motives, or if holders who say they will add end the year closer to HSBC's average than to CoinShares'.