Wealthy traditional investors are taking a longer-term approach to Bitcoin than many crypto-native traders, according to BingX Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Lee.
Speaking in a Token2049 fireside chat with Cointelegraph head of multimedia Ciaran Lyons, Lee said he works with "a lot of old money" looking for alternative investments. "They have stronger diamond hands than any of us," he said.
Affluent investors are treating Bitcoin as a diversification tool
Lee said Bitcoin has grown large enough that wealthy investors are increasingly viewing it as a way to diversify a portfolio, rather than expecting it to "go 10x in two weeks." In his view, this pool of capital remains largely untapped for crypto markets.
He said a buy-and-hold approach from wealthy investors could help position Bitcoin as a portfolio diversifier for a broader set of investors. As an example, Lee described an allocation framework in which an investor puts 5% into gold and another 5% into Bitcoin instead of chasing rapid gains.
His comments line up with recent data suggesting that affluent investors who already own crypto are looking at the asset class over a longer horizon, with long-term appreciation and diversification cited as the main reasons for holding it.
CoinShares survey points to long-term conviction among wealthy crypto holders
On Monday, CoinShares published a survey of 2,230 investors with at least $500,000 in investable assets. The survey found that long-term appreciation and diversification were the leading reasons for investing in crypto, while short-term speculation ranked last.
Among digital asset investors in that survey, 80% held Bitcoin.
Family-office exposure remains limited
Even so, crypto is still far from a standard allocation among wealthy families.
A JPMorgan report published in February, based on a survey of 333 single-family offices across 30 countries, found that 89% had no cryptocurrency exposure. Their average allocation to crypto and digital assets was 0.4%, and only 17% of respondents said crypto and digital assets were a key investment theme.
Taken together, Lee’s remarks and the survey data show a split picture: wealthy investors already in crypto appear to be leaning toward long-term holding and diversification, but adoption across family offices remains limited.