From Bitcoin to Ether: Measuring Crypto’s Weight in the Investment World

This week’s insight assesses the crypto playing field.

Clear Harbor has long been a believer in bitcoin, ether, and the like. Cryptocurrency may seem novel, even weird, to most investors, but it’s increasingly viewed as foundational to the digital economy of the future. Both token holders and those without an allocation likely wonder what the right allocation should be. Let’s flesh that out.

First, not to be a wet blanket, but there is no precise, one-size-fits-all percentage. A good measure, however, is to benchmark crypto against the global stock market. According to SIFMA’s 2025 Capital Markets Factbook, global stocks were valued at $127 trillion at the end of 2024. Given a roughly 15% YTD climb, that value is close to $145 trillion today.

As for crypto’s worth, it hovers near $4 trillion. So, digital currencies are 2.5% to 3% relative to stocks. If you are a pure equity investor, maybe consider building (or trimming) to that weight. Those with a more conservative allocation, perhaps a 60-40 stock-bond mix, could target more like 1.5% to 2% in crypto.

Within the space, bitcoin is worth $2.3 trillion, and ether is valued at $570 billion. Others like XRP, BNB, solana, cardano (and yes, even dogecoin) are smaller in dollar size.

What’s great today is that it’s super simple to procure crypto. Some ETFs that track bitcoin and ether are heavily traded, so the cost difference between buying and selling is minimal. Moreover, iShares index funds pegged to bitcoin and ether sport modest annual expenses, on the order of 0.2% to 0.3% ($20 annually for every $10,000 invested).

Zooming out, bitcoin is up 24% thus far in 2025, ether has soared to a 42% YTD gain, while the S&P 500 has returned just 11%. Gold, which is in a tremendous bull market of its own, is higher by 28%.

Surely most conservative investors shy away from crypto due to its intense volatility and perceptions that it’s all just made-up stuff. But consider this: Bitcoin, ether, and the rest of them fell huge from late 2021 through the end of the tech bear market in 2022. That wiped out almost $3 trillion in market value. Still, the tokens came back to life, hitting new highs this year. Battle-tested, they just don’t seem to go away. So, maybe there’s something to it?

I’m not saying you should or should not own crypto, but it’s important to frame the niche properly relative to the global investable market.