Institutional investors remain broadly positive about digital assets despite recent market volatility, but they are becoming more selective about how they gain exposure, according to a new survey from Coinbase and EY-Parthenon.
The January 2026 survey of 351 institutional decision-makers found that 73% plan to increase their digital asset allocations this year, while 74% expect cryptocurrency prices to rise over the next 12 months. At the same time, almost half said recent volatility has caused their company to place more emphasis on risk management, liquidity and position sizing.
This mix of confidence and caution indicates a maturing market, said David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase.
“People are still interested in crypto,” Duong said in an interview. “They want to see tighter risk controls, but they want allocation to remain maintained.”
The results suggest that institutions are no longer treating crypto as a short-term transaction. Instead, many are building more permanent operating models around the asset class, with a greater emphasis on governance, compliance and operational resilience.
A clear example is how institutions now prefer to access the market. The survey found that 66% of respondents benefit from exposure via spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and 81% prefer spot exposure via a registered vehicle. Duong said this does not mean that exchange-traded products are just a temporary step before institutions fully move to on-chain.
“I don’t think it’s just a transition vehicle,” he said. “It’s aimed at a certain segment of the investment community.” He added, however, that as the market develops, more institutions may want to gain direct exposure to the underlying assets rather than solely through funds.
Regulation remains the biggest tension in the market. Of those surveyed considering increasing their holdings, 65% said greater regulatory clarity was a key factor, but 66% also cited regulatory uncertainty as a major concern when investing in digital assets.
This contradiction could become important if clearer rules emerge. “Regulatory clarity is both a driver, but also a barrier,” Duong said.
Recent developments around the CLARITY bill on the digital asset market have added urgency to this dynamic. The bill, which aims to define how crypto assets are regulated in the United States, would clarify the roles of the SEC and CFTC while setting rules for stablecoins and market structure. Although the legislation has not yet been passed, policymakers and regulators have signaled growing support for a clearer framework, and parallel guidance from agencies such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has begun to explain how banks can engage in digital assets.
For institutions, this evolving context is key: clearer rules could enable broader participation, while ongoing uncertainty remains a major constraint to capital entry into this sector.
The survey also revealed growing interest in stablecoins and tokenization, two areas increasingly seen as practical infrastructure rather than speculative bets. Eighty-six percent of respondents said they were already using stablecoins or were interested in using them, with top use cases including T+0 settlement, internal treasury management, and money movement. At the same time, 63% said they are very interested in investing in tokenized assets, and more than 60% expect tokenization to have a significant impact on trading, clearing and settlement within three to five years.
Guarding also moved up the priority list. The share of respondents citing regulatory compliance as a key factor in selecting a custodian increased to 66%, up from 25% a year earlier. The importance of security and key signing protocols increased from 8% to 66%.
Duong said this shift reflects how institutions are thinking differently about crypto as use cases expand beyond trading.
“Compliance and security are now the main priorities,” he said. “The cost, interestingly enough, has fallen to the bottom of the list.”
For Coinbase, the message is that institutions still want crypto exposure, but only with stronger guardrails. For the market as a whole, the survey suggests that the next phase of adoption may depend less on enthusiasm alone and more on the industry’s ability to deliver the controls now expected by large investors.