Citi Wealth Report Reveals Surging Digital Asset Sentiment Among Family Offices

Family offices are finally waking up to crypto's potential—and the timing couldn't be more ironic.

The Institutional Shift

Citi's latest wealth management survey captures what many in the space have sensed for months: sophisticated money is moving off the sidelines. No longer treating digital assets as speculative toys, family offices now allocate with the same rigor they apply to traditional portfolios.

Breaking Down the Resistance

Regulatory clarity and institutional-grade custody solutions dismantle old objections. These investors aren't chasing memecoins—they're building strategic positions in blockchain infrastructure and tokenized real-world assets. The report highlights how due diligence processes evolved from 'what's Bitcoin?' to sophisticated risk-assessment frameworks.

Wall Street's Awkward Embrace

Traditional finance veterans still struggle to reconcile crypto's decentralization ethos with their commission-driven models. Watching billion-dollar family offices bypass traditional gatekeepers to access yield-generating protocols must sting—especially when those same institutions dismissed the asset class for years.

As one managing partner quipped: 'We made more on staking rewards last quarter than our entire bond portfolio—and that's before counting appreciation.' Sometimes the most conservative move is being early to the next paradigm.

Family offices cite lack of expertise as top barrier to AI adoption

Historically, most Family Offices capped their crypto exposure at 1-5% of their total portfolios. However, in 2025, a BNY Mellon report highlighted that these allocations widened, with larger Family Offices (AUM > $1B) averaging close to 8%, smaller ones (AUM

According to the Citi Wealth report, family offices expect portfolio appreciation. Nearly four out of ten anticipated returns of 10% or more. Rather than liquidate holdings in response to the tariff policies.

Family offices also rotated toward more defensive geographies and sectors, while keeping overall allocations intact, with cash holdings edged down. According to the report, they largely maintained their asset allocations, with half of them keeping their fixed income holdings steady and two-thirds keeping them in real estate.

Private equity saw the most notable bullish movement, with those increasing allocations outnumbering those decreasing by 26%.

Family offices were mainly concerned with trade wars (60%), with US-China relations being the second biggest concern (43%), followed by the resurgence of inflation (37%). The Middle East conflict and the Russia–Ukraine war were seen as substantially lesser risks (14% and 9% respectively).

Also, family office respondents who brought up the topic of AI deployment doubled in this year’s survey compared to 2024. They are interested in the automation of operational tasks (22%) and investment analysis or forecasting (22%).

AI has yet to be integrated across all functions, particularly in areas involving risk and compliance. For most family offices, the main barriers include a lack of internal expertise (57%), limited awareness (34%), and concerns about cybersecurity and return on investment.

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