Key Takeaways
- • Bitwise research team finds that adding bitcoin to a traditional 60/40 stocks/bonds portfolio would have contributed positively to returns in 76% of one-year periods, 94% of two-year periods, and 100% of three-year periods since 2014, assuming quarterly rebalancing.
- • The updated study, drawing on over a decade of bitcoin return data, tests multiple rebalancing strategies, allocation sizes, and holding periods.
- • The research also examines bitcoin's counterintuitive influence on portfolio risk metrics and addresses three key questions investors should ask before allocating.
- • Bitwise, a crypto asset manager with $9 billion in client assets and over 70 products, published the study for its institutional and wealth management client base.
Summary
Bitwise Asset Management has published an updated study examining the historical effect of bitcoin on a diversified portfolio's risk-adjusted returns. The research team evaluated adding bitcoin to a traditional 60/40 stocks/bonds portfolio, using more than a decade of bitcoin return data to test a range of rebalancing strategies, allocation sizes, and holding periods.
Assuming quarterly rebalancing, the study finds bitcoin would have contributed positively to a diversified portfolio's returns in 76% of one-year periods, 94% of two-year periods, and 100% of three-year periods since 2014. According to the publication, these results hold across the tested allocation and rebalancing approaches, though the findings are historical and do not guarantee future performance.
The study also highlights what it describes as bitcoin's counterintuitive influence on portfolio risk metrics. It frames three key questions investors should ask when considering a bitcoin allocation, although the publisher summary available for this article does not detail those questions.
Bitwise Asset Management, the publisher, is a global crypto asset manager with $9 billion in client assets and more than 70 investment products spanning ETFs, separately managed accounts, private funds, DeFi strategies, and staking. The firm reports a nine-year track record and serves more than 5,500 private wealth teams, RIAs, family offices and institutional investors, as well as 21 banks and broker-dealers. Its team is backed by institutional investors and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and London.
Assuming quarterly rebalancing, the study finds bitcoin would have contributed positively to a diversified portfolio's returns in 76% of one-year periods, 94% of two-year periods, and 100% of three-year periods since 2014. According to the publication, these results hold across the tested allocation and rebalancing approaches, though the findings are historical and do not guarantee future performance.
The study also highlights what it describes as bitcoin's counterintuitive influence on portfolio risk metrics. It frames three key questions investors should ask when considering a bitcoin allocation, although the publisher summary available for this article does not detail those questions.
Bitwise Asset Management, the publisher, is a global crypto asset manager with $9 billion in client assets and more than 70 investment products spanning ETFs, separately managed accounts, private funds, DeFi strategies, and staking. The firm reports a nine-year track record and serves more than 5,500 private wealth teams, RIAs, family offices and institutional investors, as well as 21 banks and broker-dealers. Its team is backed by institutional investors and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and London.
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