Crypto majors bounce as global funds cut dollar hedges to lowest since 2015

The world’s biggest pension funds and institutional investors have quietly pulled back on their dollar hedging to levels not seen in over a decade, and the crypto market is catching the tailwind. As of late June, hedge ratios for dollar exposure among major non-US institutional holders dropped to just 41% of foreign-currency exposure, the lowest reading since at least 2015. Bitcoin and Ethereum both registered upward moves during this period of dollar softness, reinforcing a pattern that’s been building throughout 2026: when the greenback weakens and institutions let their hedges roll off, risk assets tend to catch a bid. The great unhedging Japanese investors hedged only 41% of new foreign bond purchases in the first half of 2026, down sharply from 62% in 2024. Danish pension funds reversed roughly half of their mid-2025 hedging increases by early 2026. Canadian institutions saw hedge ratios slip by about one percentage point. Similar trends played out in Taiwan and the Netherlands. Three-month dollar hedge costs for yen-based investors fell to a four-year low of 2.75%. Euro-based hedging costs dropped to a two-year low of 1.32%. Narrowing interest rate differentials between the U...