Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said investors being too busy remains crypto’s biggest adoption barrier, even as institutions continue holding or increasing exposure during the Bitcoin bear market. In a Sunday interview with Scott Melker of Wolf Of The All Street, Horsley said 15 large investors—including endowments, corporations, sovereign investors and pension funds—maintained or increased their positions, with every surveyed institution holding Bitcoin and some owning other crypto assets. Bitwise recorded roughly $1.8 billion in inflows in the first half of 2026 and preliminary third-quarter inflows of about $1 billion. Horsley said investors also swapped roughly $60 million to $70 million of directly held crypto into ETF shares during the third quarter. He said access to Bitcoin products is about two-thirds complete, but broader adoption still requires renewed price momentum and urgency among mainstream investors. Regulation and access are no longer the sector’s primary obstacles, although well-written Clarity legislation could support some use cases. Horsley described the GENIUS Act as extremely powerful and said a proposed SEC custody framework could enable stablecoin holdings, on-chain vaults and tokenized assets, with use cases expected next year. Bitcoin traded near $85,200 on Sunday, up 0.5% in 24 hours, while Stocktwits retail sentiment remained bearish and discussion fell from normal to low. Separately, Bitwise’s NEAR ETF, trading under NRR on the New York Stock Exchange, attracted more than $50 million in net inflows after its late-September launch, while NEAR rose more than 3% over 24 hours.