71% of institutional investors have no plans to trade crypto in 2025, down from 78% in 2024.
A recent J.P. Morgan survey reveals that 71% of institutional investors have no plans to trade crypto in 2025. The findings come at a time when broader economic pressures such as Trump’s tariffs are increasing financial market uncertainty, shifting investors’ attention to safer asset classes. In the same survey, 51% of institutional traders identified inflation and tariffs as the biggest market concerns this year, a sharp rise from 27% in 2024.
Interestingly, this waning interest in crypto trading comes at the time as the crypto regulatory landscape keeps getting better, especially in the U.S. This has led to major developments, most notably the SEC approving Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs, which have pulled in billions and given institutions a safe, regulated way to get crypto exposure. The latest sign that the U.S. is warming up to crypto came this week, as the SEC scaled back its crypto enforcement unit. With regulators easing up, the door for institutional involvement is more open than ever, but according to JP Morgan’s survey, most aren’t rushing in.
That being said, institutional adoption is progressing in other ways. BlackRock, Fidelity, and other major asset management firms have been actively expanding their Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings. In fact, just a couple of days ago, BlackRock acquired approximately $276.16 million worth of Ethereum. Even more notably, on Dec. 12, BlackRock and Fidelity made a massive $500 million Ethereum purchase through Coinbase Prime in just 48 hours.
