Here’s a sentence that would have gotten you laughed out of a wealth management conference five years ago: family offices are adding crypto to their portfolios because they want to reduce risk.
According to a BNY Mellon survey covering the 2025-2026 period, 74% of family offices are now either invested in or actively exploring cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. That’s nearly double the 39% of single-family offices that reported similar interest in prior surveys.
The math behind the counterintuitive move
The core argument rests on correlation, or rather the lack of it. Bitcoin has historically shown low correlation to traditional asset classes like equities and bonds. In portfolio construction, adding an uncorrelated asset, even a volatile one, can smooth out overall returns.
Between April 2019 and March 2024, adding just 3% crypto exposure to a standard 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolio reportedly elevated returns from 33.3% to 52.9%.
