‘Old money’ has stronger Bitcoin ‘diamond hands,’ says BingX exec

At Token2049 Singapore, BingX chief strategy officer Kevin Lee highlighted a notable divergence in investment behavior between traditional wealth pools and crypto-native traders. Speaking with Cointelegraph's head of multimedia, Lee observed that high-net-worth "old money" investors demonstrate superior holding discipline—or "diamond hands"—compared to participants typically associated with crypto markets. This distinction reflects a fundamental shift in how institutional and family-office capital approaches Bitcoin: not as a speculative moonshot but as a legitimate portfolio construction tool.

Lee emphasized that Bitcoin's capitalization has matured to a point where wealthy allocators can credibly treat it as a diversification instrument alongside traditional alternatives like gold. He cited practical allocation examples—such as a 5% Bitcoin position paired with a 5% gold allocation within a broader portfolio—to illustrate how established investors now view crypto exposure through a risk-adjusted, long-term lens rather than seeking outsized short-term returns.

Supporting this narrative, a CoinShares survey released concurrent with the Token2049 event surveyed 2,230 investors with minimum investable assets of $500,000. The data validated Lee's observations: long-term appreciation and portfolio diversification ranked as the leading investment drivers, while short-term speculation placed last among cited reasons. Bitcoin commanded the largest share, held by 80% of digital asset investors in the survey cohort. However, Lee cautioned that while adoption trends are positive among investors already exposed to crypto, the broader penetration of digital assets among family offices and affluent investor bases remains circumscribed relative to traditional allocations. This gap suggests substantial untapped capital reserves available to crypto markets as wealth management practices evolve and institutional comfort with digital asset allocation deepens.