BroadChain learned that at 18:06 on April 26, in the first quarter of 2026, the crypto market experienced a deep correction, with Bitcoin falling over 25% from a high of around $88,000 to the $65,000 range, and Ethereum dropping even deeper by 35%. However, institutional funds did not exit the market; instead, they showed a trend of increasing positions against the tide.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) increased its Bitcoin holdings by over $10 billion, and institutions such as Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala also bought the dip. Fund flows showed clear divergence: some hedge funds significantly reduced positions (Brevan Howard cut its IBIT position by 85%), but corporate treasuries, university endowments, ETF issuers, and sovereign funds chose to buy on dips.
In the primary market, although the number of transactions plummeted by 49%, the total quarterly financing amount remained at approximately $5 billion to $6.8 billion, with three deals—BVNK, Kalshi, and Polymarket—accounting for half of the total. Changes in the regulatory environment paved the way for institutional entry. In September 2025, the SEC shortened the ETF approval cycle from 240 days to 75 days;
On March 17, 2026, a joint statement by the SEC and CFTC classified staking rewards as non-securities, triggering a wave of staking ETF issuances. In the first quarter, about 26 single-asset crypto ETFs were issued or had applications submitted, including Bitwise's Chainlink ETF, Canary Capital's Litecoin and HBAR spot ETFs, and 21Shares' Polkadot ETF.
Traditional financial institutions accelerated their deployment: BlackRock launched the first mainstream institutional ETH staking ETF (ETHB), and Morgan Stanley issued the first bank-backed Bitcoin spot ETF (MSBT) in the US, attracting $34 million on its first day and reaching a scale of $133 million eight days later.
Nomura's Laser Digital launched tokenized yield products, and 21Shares listed a strategy-based ETP with BTC as the underlying asset in Zurich. History seems to be repeating itself, but the details are vastly different. During the bear market of 2022-2023, institutions quietly built positions, laying the foundation for the bull market of 2024-2025.
Now, sovereign funds, bank-backed ETFs, and traditional financial giants are deploying on a larger scale and in more diverse ways, accumulating strength for the next market cycle.