Bitwise says sovereign wealth fund is selling gold to buy Bitcoin

Bitwise Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen said a sovereign wealth fund was selling gold and other foreign-exchange reserves to fund Bitcoin purchases. Rasmussen discussed the finding in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine on Tuesday. Bitwise spoke with several sovereign wealth funds for its research on institutional crypto adoption and found interest in Bitcoin across multiple regions. Rasmussen said even Bitcoin allocations of 2% to 3% could generate substantial buying because sovereign wealth funds control large pools of capital. Some institutions are considering spot Bitcoin ETFs. Others are exploring direct custody, mining and options strategies designed to generate income from their Bitcoin holdings. Bitwise interviewed 15 major institutions, including pensions, endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds. Rasmussen said none sold crypto as Bitcoin fell from roughly $125,000 to $60,000 in June 2026, while several bought more. Many of those investors view Bitcoin and gold as complementary hedges against currency debasement rather than competing assets. Rasmussen said allocation recommendations from major wealth-management platforms have risen from roughly 1% several years ago to around 2% to 8% today. Rasmussen believes Bitcoin's latest bear market bottomed near $60,000. Rasmussen cited increasingly muted market reactions to negative developments as a sign that selling pressure had been exhausted. Rasmussen argued that Bitcoin ETFs and digital-asset treasury companies have introduced systematic, long-term demand absent from previous cycles. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.5 billion in net inflows the prior week, signaling strong institutional demand even as Bitcoin remained well below its previous all-time high. Rasmussen said Bitcoin is likely to trade sideways around the U.S. midterms. Rasmussen said Bitwise expects prices to move higher eventually and called the broader trade against currency debasement "just getting started."