Bitcoin & Ethereum Hold Strong Amid Market Calm – Stablecoin Reserves Hit Record Highs

Crypto markets shrug off volatility as giants BTC and ETH enter steady accumulation phase.

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By May, that setup hardly budged. BTC and ETH together accounted for 54%, with layer-1s at 24%, DeFi at 8%, and stablecoins at 14%. That might suggest that, in strong up-markets, managers keep a steady overweight in Core tokens and key smart-contract chains.

The mood appeared quite different in February, when BTC and ETH allocations fell to about 47%, down 10% from January. At the same time, stablecoin holdings nearly doubled to almost 30%. During that pullback, managers appear to have relied on Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) for liquidity and downside protection. Exposure to high-beta DeFi assets reportedly dropped from 8% to 5%, while layer-1s eased to around 20.5%, preserving what the report calls “dry powder” for when markets calm.

Risk-managed baseline

When markets moved sideways — in March, April, and June — allocations appeared to be relatively balanced. In March, for instance, BTC and ETH held steady at 50%, stablecoins sat at 24.5%, and DeFi and layer-1 hovered around 5% and 21.5%, respectively. That mix seems to reflect a cautious reentry into yield strategies as volatility cooled.

April brought another mild shift toward risk. As price action teased new highs, BTC and ETH ROSE to 52%, DeFi inched up to 6%, and layer-1 tokens climbed to 23%. Stablecoins fell to 19%, blending momentum plays with income generation.

By June, after a mild sell-off, portfolios had reverted to a structure resembling that of March. Bitcoin and Ethereum were back at 50%, stablecoins at 24.5%, DeFi at 6%, and layer-1 at 20.5%. That return to a more defensive posture suggests managers remained cautious about upside after the earlier rally.

Finestel’s report emphasizes three themes that appear consistent across all regimes:

• Core Consistency. Bitcoin and Ethereum appear to be anchoring roughly half of most portfolios, serving as what the report refers to as a “risk-managed baseline.”
• Dynamic Dry Powder. Stablecoins fluctuate between 14% and 30%, offering tactical liquidity to buy dips or hedge against market downturns.
• Selective Growth. Allocations to DeFi and layer-1 expand in bullish or cooling phases, aimed at harvesting yield or tactical alpha, but get trimmed when markets turn risk-off.

Of course, these figures aren’t one-size-fits-all. The report doesn’t identify specific firms or their performance targets, and it’s unclear how rebalancing frequency or fee structures might affect the results. For everyday investors, it obviously isn’t a plug-and-play playbook.

And yet, Bybit‘s numbers from a recent research report tell a similar story, with a twist though. They show that Bitcoin’s slice of everyone’s wallets has been climbing, now almost 31%, up from about 25% back in November. Even with all the ups and downs this year, people continue to come back to BTC as their go-to.

At the same time, XRP has quietly moved into third place among non-stablecoins, nudging out Solana, whose share has dropped by about a third since last fall. And it’s not just regular traders doing this. Institutions have nearly 40% of their holdings in Bitcoin, compared with about 12% for retail investors, showing how BTC is both a crowd-pleaser for everyday buyers and a macro hedge for the big players.