JPMorgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report , surveying 333 family offices across 30 countries with an average net worth of $1.6 billion, found that 89% carry zero crypto exposure, while 65% prioritize artificial intelligence as a top investment theme. For the world’s wealthiest capital pools, the pivot toward AI is the defining allocation story of the year. Source: JPMorgan That conclusion, however, arrives amid a growing wave of crypto entries happening in parallel. Hong Kong’s VMS Group committed $10 million to Re7 Capital, Asian family offices raised over $100 million for crypto vehicles, and Maelstrom, the family office of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, launched a $250 million private equity fund set to deploy $40 to $75 million per acquisition across off-chain crypto companies, all while the broader cohort JPMorgan surveyed stayed firmly on the sidelines. AI Leads the Race Among Family Office Themes Artificial intelligence tops every investment theme in the report, with 65% of family offices identifying it as a current or future priority. Healthcare innovation follows at 50%, infrastructure at 41%, and crypto and digital assets trail at just 17%. The gap between ambition and real allocation is stark. Over half of offices have no exposure to growth equity or venture capital, the channels where most AI innovation is expected to surface, while 79% have no allocation to infrastructure, the physical layer powering AI at scale. Source: JPMorgan Kristin Kallergis Rowland, Global Head of Alternative Investments at J.P. Morgan, summed up the momentum, saying “ alternatives are no longer a tactical complement, but a strategic pillar. “ Private equity leads planned increases at 37% globally, with 2.5 times as many family offices adding private market exposure as reducing it. Source: JPMorgan Crypto Sidelined Despite Growing Institutional Demand On average, family offices globally hold just 0.4% of their portfolios in digital assets, with Bitcoin accounting for a mere 0.2%. 72% also carry no gold, even as one in five offices flagged geopolitics as their top risk, and nearly 60% cited inflation as a key concern. Despite that caution, Muhammed Yesilhark, CIO at NOIA Capital, said family offices moved in 2025 “ from ‘crypto experimenters’ to structured allocators, allocating modest but growing percentages of wealth to digital assets. “ A BNY Mellon study published in October corroborated the trend, finding 74% of ultra-high-net-worth offices were investing in or exploring crypto, up 21% points year-on-year, driven by improved custody and regulated investment vehicles. The entries kept coming at the institutional level. VMS managing partner Elton Cheung cited “ clearer legislative and government support from various jurisdictions ” as the driver behind his firm’s move into Re7 Capital, while Re7 founder Evgeny Gokhberg framed the strategy around serious capital. “ Typically, people think about asymmetry in crypto as ‘lose it all or make a 100x.’ That’s rarely a fit for a serious allocator with a reputation to lose, ” he said. Institutional Conviction and Advisor Adoption Hold Firm While family offices surveyed by JPMorgan largely stayed on the sidelines, institutional investors are telling a sharply different story. A recent Coinbase and Glassnode survey of 148 global investors , polled between December 2025 and January 2026, found 70% of institutions view Bitcoin as undervalued, even after it dropped from above $125,000 to roughly $90,000 in late 2025. Around 62% of those surveyed maintained or added to positions through the selloff rather than retreating. David Duong, Coinbase’s Global Head of Research, wrote that “ crypto markets are entering 2026 in a healthier state, with excess leverage having been flushed from the system in Q4. “ An even more recent Bitwise and VettaFi survey added to the picture, finding 32% of financial advisors allocated to crypto in client accounts in 2025, up from 22% the prior year, with registered investment advisors leading at 42% and 74% of clients investing in crypto outside the advisory relationship. Crypto allocations by financial advisors hit 32% in 2025, up from 22% a year earlier, as Bitcoin reached new highs and US rules moved closer to the mainstream, a @BitwiseInvest survey showed. #DigitalAssets #WealthManagement https://t.co/dCIdMFRG7I — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) January 14, 2026 Beyond the US, UBS noted in late 2025 that overseas Chinese family offices also plan to raise crypto holdings to around 5%, while Hong Kong’s HashKey Exchange reported an 85% year-on-year jump in registered users. Zann Kwan, CIO of Singapore-based Revo Digital Family Office, noted the generational shift, explaining that “ last year, they started to dip their feet into Bitcoin ETFs… now they have begun to learn the difference of holding a token directly. “ The post JPMorgan Says Family Offices Are Dumping Crypto for AI Bets appeared first on Cryptonews .
