When an internal memo revealed in April that BlackRock was reshuffling its top brassas part of a move to prioritize its higher-fee paying alternatives investments business, some financial services industry watchers wondered if the worlds largest money manager be might ready to formalize its interest in cryptocurrency.
It was in mid-2018 that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink first set tongues wagging by telling Reuters that the $6.5 trillion manager wasa big student of blockchain. At the same time media reported that BlackRock had set up a working group tasked withinvestigating cryptocurrencieslike bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underpins them.
Even this relatively minor revelation was enough topush bitcoin trading up by as much as 5% in the days after it became public. The prices of ethereum and ripple, the second- and third-largest digital assets by market capitalization respectively, also ticked up slightly, a sign perhaps that the market is eagerly awaiting any crypto maneuver BlackRock makes.
Other institutional investors are also eyeing off opportunities in the burgeoning digital asset sector on the back of strengthening prices. After 2018s horror winter of crypto, which was marked by heavy losses, bitcoinhas doubled so far this year, and is now sitting at around $8000 per bitcoin. Following suit and making significant gains are other major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin cash, Litecoin and Ethereum.
According to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments,47% of institutional investors view digital assets as having a place in their investment portfolios, and about 22% already have some exposure to digital assets.
One big finance name who has already thrown its weight behind the sector is billionaire Steven Cohen.Bloomberg reported in July 2018that his Cohen Private Ventures had invested in a cryptocurrencies and blockchain-focused hedge fund named Autonomous Partners. The fund founded by crypto early adopter Arianna Simpson, also counts Union Square Ventures, Coinbase Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong and Craft Ventures Co-Founder David Sacks amongst her backers.
That said, its not just the financial set dipping its toes into the digital asset waters,Facebook caused a stir in June when it revealed the details of Libra- its global payments system based on cryptocurrency. When it launches next year the social media platforms more than 2 billion users will be able to shop or transfer money with nearly zero fees using digital wallets provided by Facebook.
While Forbes predicts the global payments systemwill be forever changedby Facebooks foray into digital currency, for institutional investors barriers to entry still remain.
For example, the sector is still awaiting clearer regulation, and there remains a lack of prime brokers and settlement systems for crypto trading. The current model where a trading counterparty is also the custodian of the assets required for the transaction remains inherently risky, as the possibility for assets to be stolen if there is a security breach is preventing more institutional investors entering the space.
More positively for the sector, institutional-grade custody solutions, which in the past were lacking, have started to arrive.In 2018 Fidelity became the first big name to enter the crypto custody space when it announced it was launching a separate company called Fidelity Digital Asset Services to provide institutional clients, like hedge funds and family offices, with custody for cryptocurrencies including bitcoin. Coinbase Custody officially opened for business in 2018 with its first customers being crypto hedge funds, exchanges and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) teams.
For its part BlackRock still remains coy about its plans for crypto, with its CEO Fink in 2018 saying that the fund manager did not see a huge demand for cryptocurrencies and later that year adding BlackRock would avoid a bitcoin ETF until cryptocurrencies become legitimate. Nevertheless, other investors seems more willing to pursue crypto-based strategies, with Fidelitys research finding that four in ten respondents are open to future investments in digital assets over the next five years, what is certain is that investors will be seeking forward looking financial players to work with as the crypto investment infrastructure advances.
