Edelman Urges 10%-40% Crypto Allocation Despite Bitcoin Dip

Six months after sending shockwaves through the financial advisory community, Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, is not retreating from his controversial crypto allocation advice. In a white paper released in June, Edelman advocated for a 10% cryptocurrency allocation for conservative investors and up to 40% for more aggressive portfolios. This marked a dramatic escalation from his previous endorsement of “low single-digits” investments. The co-founder of Edelman Financial Engines, a nearly $300 billion asset manager, attributed this shift to “dramatically improved regulatory clarity and institutional engagement in crypto.” Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas hailed the original recommendation as “the most important full-throated endorsement of crypto from [the] TradFi world since Larry Fink.”

Edelman’s strategy emerges against a backdrop of significant price fluctuation. When his paper was released, Bitcoin had surged over 32% in a 10-week period, buoyed by the Trump administration’s digital asset policies, the proliferation of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and corporate treasury purchases. However, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap has since struggled to sustain momentum above $90,000, dipping as low as $81,000 in November amid broader macroeconomic turmoil that pressured risk assets. Yet, for Edelman, this price action reinforces, rather than undermines, his thesis.

Edelman directly challenges investor apprehension around Bitcoin’s recent decline. “If you liked Bitcoin at $100,000 or $125,000, you have to love it at $85,000,” he recently told Decrypt. He frames this perspective through a traditional finance lens, noting, “This is the same message that advisors give their clients anytime the stock market declines, and we have seen 20%-30% declines in the S&P 500 as well.” He argues that periods of significant decline represent classic buying opportunities for long-term investors, whether in equities or digital assets.

This correlation, Edelman contends, is not a weakness but a sign of maturation. “It’s testimony to the fact that being lumped together with all other asset classes demonstrates better than ever that Bitcoin has become a mainstream asset,” he said. He points to Bitcoin’s reaction to macroeconomic uncertainty as evidence that institutional investors now treat it similarly to other holdings—a development he says would not have occurred five, ten, or fifteen years ago. He views current price trends as “routine,” akin to profit-taking seen in other asset classes after extended rallies, concurring with observers who attribute recent BTC pressure to early whales cashing in on gains.

The core of Edelman’s bullish argument extends far beyond price charts to tangible institutional engagement. He highlights Harvard University’s regulatory filing last month disclosing a $116 million position in the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest ETF tracking the market, as a prime example. “We are seeing massive levels of engagement and adoption, not just by traditional finance, but the entire Fortune 500,” Edelman asserted. He believes this deepening institutional footprint, which he says “trumped concerns about crypto markets’ price swoon,” will serve to “support and increase prices over the next several years.”

Looking forward, Edelman’s projections are extraordinarily optimistic. His white paper predicts Bitcoin could reach a $19 trillion market capitalization—representing growth of over 955% from its current value of nearly $1.8 trillion. Furthermore, he makes a provocative demographic argument: given rising life expectancies, even 90-year-olds should consider exposure to digital assets, with investment decisions based solely on individual risk tolerance rather than age. For Edelman, the convergence of regulatory progress, flagship products like the BlackRock ETF, and adoption by pillars of traditional finance like Harvard has created an irreversible and foundational change for cryptocurrencies within the global financial system.