Banks Abandon BTC and Switch to ETH: Major Asset Migration Under Basel's New Rules

According to Woofun AI, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released statistics for the second half of 2025, revealing the new normal of global banking activity in the cryptocurrency sector: risk exposure constitutes a fundamental restructuring rather than an expansion in scale.

Although the escrow and client-related business is growing moderately, the overall risk exposure is limited by the current Basel Agreement capital requirements and remains stable. According to data compiled by Woofun AI, representative customer business in the Americas surged 93% to 6.4 billion euros, while the European region shrank 25% to 1.9 billion euros. Risk exposures in both regions have not changed significantly in the past 18 months, indicating that banks' willingness to invest in crypto has hit the limits set by regulations.

The sharp change in the asset structure of the American region was most significant: Bitcoin's share of risk exposure dropped sharply from 75.8% to 44.2%, and Ethereum jumped to the top beneficiary, accounting for 38.5%. Furthermore, there is a clear trend of decentralized bank allocations. Solana's share rose to 7.8%, and Ripple's share reached 5.6%, indicating that institutions are shifting from a single Bitcoin exposure to diversified crypto asset portfolios.

The rest of the world favors stablecoins, reflecting heightened risk aversion. Due to differences in reporting agencies in different time ranges, data variability needs to be interpreted in the light of specific contexts. This is the banking industry's latest response to capital efficiency and risk balance following the clarification of the regulatory framework, and marks a stage of refinement in the allocation of crypto assets.