Australian institutions hold nearly five times consumers’ stablecoin exposure, Kraken data shows
Payward, parent company of Kraken, one of the world’s longest-standing and most secure multi-asset trading platforms, has released an anonymised, aggregate analysis comparing the portfolio composition and investment behaviour of hundreds of thousands of Australian consumer and institutional clients. The analysis covers funded consumer accounts and funded institutional primary accounts on the Kraken platform as of 28 September 2026.
The divide between Australia’s institutional and consumer portfolios is wide:
- Stablecoins represented 16.8% of aggregate institutional crypto holdings, nearly five times the 3.6% recorded across consumer accounts.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum continued to dominate both cohorts. Together, they accounted for 63% of aggregate consumer crypto holdings and 45% of institutional holdings.
- Consumer portfolios showed remarkably strong holding behaviour over a twelve-month period, with the overwhelming majority (86%) of accounts funded at both dates increasing or maintaining their crypto positions, including 43% that accumulated more crypto.
The findings suggest Australian institutions are maintaining a substantially larger pool of stablecoin liquidity alongside their exposure to major cryptoassets. Consumers, by contrast, are more heavily weighted towards Bitcoin and Ethereum, as has been noted in previous year analysis, and the large majority have increased or maintained their crypto positions.
Kraken is part of Payward, a global financial technology company spanning trading, custody, payments, lending, onchain finance, and benchmarks.
“Stablecoins now represent close to one-fifth of aggregate institutional crypto holdings on Kraken in Australia. Institutions maintain a much larger stablecoin allocation, which can give them greater flexibility to deploy capital,” said Jonathon Miller, Managing Director, Australia and Rest of World at Payward.
“Most consumer accounts, meanwhile, maintained or increased their crypto positions over the past 12 months, with many utilising dollar cost averaging strategies. In fact, our data shows that when it comes to recurring purchases, the median contribution per user per active month increased from A$173 during the period following September 28 2025 to end of year, to A$191 in 2026 up until September 28,” Miller continued.
“That is a significant behavioural difference. It shows that many consumers are treating crypto as a longer-term holding, rather than an asset class they need to trade constantly. The old narratives of crypto hold strong.”
Larger consumer portfolios remain anchored in bitcoin
Owning Bitcoin was particularly prominent among consumers with larger portfolios.
For consumer portfolios valued above A$250,000, bitcoin represented an average of 49% of crypto holdings.
Large institutional portfolios also remained relatively concentrated. Among the institutional accounts with more than A$250,000 in crypto holdings, the largest single holding represented an average of 63% of the portfolio.
“Portfolio size does not automatically result in investors spreading their exposure across dozens of assets, despite what the financial advice industry preaches. Among larger consumer portfolios, Bitcoin alone accounted for almost half of holdings on average. For our institutional clients, their holdings with Kraken are likely to be diversified across different asset classes elsewhere,” Miller concluded.
Methodology
The analysis is based on aggregated and anonymised Kraken account data as at 28 September 2026. It includes funded Australian consumer accounts and funded institutional primary accounts. Portfolio allocations are calculated as a percentage of crypto holdings on the Kraken platform, and changes in consumer crypto positions were measured at constant prices to distinguish changes in underlying holdings from changes caused by asset-price movements.
