Singapore Bitcoin investors want returns, survey finds

RootstockCollective has published research showing strong demand among wealthy Bitcoin investors in Singapore to generate returns from their holdings. The survey found that this demand is also shaped by concerns around control, custody and succession planning.

The study covered 600 investment decision-makers in Singapore and Hong Kong, including high-net-worth individuals, family office professionals, wealth managers, advisers and institutional allocators. Among respondents in Singapore, 91.1% said they wanted to make their Bitcoin more productive, compared with 84.1% in Hong Kong.

Across the full sample, 87.5% said they wanted their Bitcoin holdings to generate returns beyond price appreciation, while 89.8% expected to allocate to Bitcoin return-generating strategies within the next year. At the same time, caution remained widespread: 98% said they expected to give up something before considering such an approach.

That trade-off was clearest in attitudes to security, liquidity and custody. About 39.8% of respondents said security was one of the compromises they expected, 36.2% pointed to having to sell or convert their Bitcoin holdings, and 31.3% cited giving up control or custody of assets.

Singapore investors placed greater weight on maintaining direct control than their Hong Kong peers. Retaining full control and custody of assets was the leading investment driver among respondents in Singapore, cited by 29.2%, compared with 19.1% in Hong Kong.

Local market structure was also a stronger factor in Singapore. Access to local, regulated counterparties ranked as the second most important driver for Singapore respondents at 27.5%, versus 17.2% in Hong Kong.

Succession focus

The findings also pointed to a growing focus on inheritance and continuity as Bitcoin becomes a more established part of private wealth portfolios. Among private investors and family offices, 81% said they had a digital-asset succession plan, but only 28% described that plan as comprehensive.

Investors with a comprehensive digital-asset succession plan were more than twice as likely to say they would definitely consider putting their Bitcoin to work. The figure was 42% for those with a comprehensive plan, compared with 17% for those with only a partial plan.

The survey indicated that planning for intergenerational transfer could affect broader asset-allocation decisions. Some 85% said secure inheritance and continuity tools would make them more willing to hold more digital assets.

Respondents also showed signs of reassessing long-held assumptions about how Bitcoin-related income strategies work. Across the sample, 64% said they believed participation required deep technical expertise, while 63% assumed that any second token connected to Bitcoin infrastructure carried the same risk as a speculative altcoin.

Once certain conditions were met, respondents appeared more open to different structures. Some 62.7% of the full sample said they would hold a second Bitcoin-linked token once they fully understood how it was secured.

A larger share, 82.8%, said they would probably or definitely consider actively backing a Bitcoin-secured network if they could keep custody of their Bitcoin throughout and were not required to sell or trade it. The result suggests investor reluctance may depend less on Bitcoin itself than on the terms under which it is deployed.

Walr carried out the online survey for RootstockCollective, with 291 respondents in Singapore and 309 in Hong Kong. All respondents held Bitcoin or Bitcoin-linked assets and had influence over related investment decisions.

"The research confirms what we have felt building for some time. Bitcoin has earned its place in portfolios, but investors now want it to generate returns. At the same time, wealth moving into Bitcoin in Singapore is being measured against other assets in the portfolio, and investors will not accept compromises or conditions below the standards they are accustomed to. Productive Bitcoin will be defined by how far that standard spreads across productive Bitcoin routes, to the point where institutional capital will seriously consider it. I believe the market will reshape around investor expectations, and the next phase of productive Bitcoin will include more routes such as active backing, where investors keep full custody of their assets and a sound security model serves as the minimum baseline," said Sascha Goetz, Chief Executive Officer of RootstockCollective.