Survey of 122 hedge fund managers, representing $982 billion in assets under management (AUM), reveals growing interest in crypto assets exposure across traditional finance.
TradFi is hungry for crypto exposure, this is not news at this point but these sort of reports should serve as a constant reminder that the game is set to change as traditional capital flows in.
More than half of traditional hedge funds now have exposure to digital assets, reflecting a steady institutional shift toward the cryptocurrency market despite recent volatility, according to a new survey.
A survey released on Thursday by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) found that 55% of traditional hedge funds had exposure to digital assets as of 2025.
The survey reportedly drew the participation of 122 hedge fund managers, representing $982 billion in assets under management. AIMA also found that on average, funds allocate 7% of their portfolios to crypto-related assets. Still, most hedge funds maintain low exposure, with most investing under 2% in crypto. However, 71% plan to increase their exposure over the next year.
Nearly half (47%) of respondents cited the evolving US regulatory environment as the reason for increasing their allocation to digital assets. – Cointelegraph report
Capital will always chase industries, projects and companies set to make the most money and there's a lot of capital laying around.
Crypto is an emerging market, a rather promising market, especially in the age of artificial intelligence. A lot of traditional companies will not survive the hit of AI, a lot of economies will bleed too.
Trillions flowing into AI means that several businesses will be under attack as many services stands to be automated with AI at a much lower cost.
These events will cause capital to seek alternative markets for hedging. The crypto market is probably going to be the least market to be threaten by the growth of AI solutions, if anything, the advancement in artificial intelligence could probably bring more value to crypto.
When we look at things like AI Agents, which will be a big part of the future of e-commerce, cryptocurrencies will be a leading transaction currency for agents, facilitating trillions, generating tons of revenue and increasing ecosystem value through network effects.
Over the next 5-10 years, much of traditional capital will be deep into crypto assets, holding significantly assets supply exposure. DeFi annual volumes will likely maintain over $1 trillion traded and it's lending market will probably explode. At this time, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency markets would be over $10 trillion, with stablecoins probably making up over 20% or $2 trillion of said market.