London, August 5 (HNA) – The majority of the institutional investors are of the view that the prominent reason to abstain a lot of people from entering the crypto market is the custodial services as well as the virtual-asset security.
In a recently carried out research, Nickel Digital Asset Management (the conductor) pointed out that approximately 75 percent of the wealth managers and institutional investors stated that the most significant factor is the virtual-currency security which prevents the people from getting into the space of cryptocurrency.
The survey that included dozens of institutional investors and wealth managers from the US, UK, France, Germany, and the UAE who collectively have 275 billion dollars in assets under management, found that over 76 percent of them have deep concerns about the security, and liquidity of Bitcoin, and see many regulatory hurdles ahead.
The survey was completed in May-June 2021 and ran by Nickel Digital Asset Management, a London-based FCA-authorized, and regulated investment manager that specializes in a range of digital asset strategies.
According to the survey, here are the most significant hurdles preventing institutional investors from investing in Bitcoin for the first time:
Quality of custodial services 76 percent
Size of market/liquidity 76 percent
Regulatory environment 71 percent
Lack of transparency 69 percent
Volatility 65 percent
Lack of reputable fund managers offering investments in this area 64 percent
Anatoly Crachilov, co-founder and CEO of Nickel Digital, said:
“Whilst many forward-looking institutional investors are increasing their exposure to digital assets, our findings show that concerns around security and custody of these assets remain a top concern for many other allocators.
In reality, the industry has achieved very strong progress on that front, deploying a range of sophisticated cryptographic solutions, including distributed keys and MPC (multi-party computation) vaults, to create robust custody models.
In addition to crypto-native custodians, we are now seeing Fidelity, BNY Mellon, and State Street entering the market, thus further reinforcing market infrastructure. All of this increases the confidence levels in the sector and lead to ever-growing allocations to this fast-developing asset class.”
Henry Howell, Nickel’s head of business development added:
“Security of clients’ assets is paramount at Nickel. We deploy independent institutional-grade custody solutions, in partnership with US-based Fidelity and UK-based Copper.
These sophisticated solutions are based on air-gapped, multi-signature, cross-organization custody models, thus mitigating single points of failure, typically associated with self-custody of crypto assets.
In our setup, the joint control over assets is retained by independent Fund Administrator and Fund Custodian at all times.”
While most companies are aware of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, this doesn’t mean they have any desire to acquire some at current prices. While there are clearly many utility-based cryptocurrencies that may thrive in the long run, the market is still clearly oversaturated, and will see a “cleanse”.
If we look at the data, only a handful of public companies in the entire world have even put Bitcoin on their balance sheet, most of which only invested a tiny fraction (1 percent BTC, and 99 percent cash) — for publicity?
Despite many Bitcoiners claiming Institutional demand is surging, and that Walmart, Apple, Facebook, and others are buying (fake rumours), On-chain metrics show that Institutional demand has significantly declined this year.
The Purpose ETF, one of the first approved bitcoin exchange-traded products, has also seen a massive slow-down in net inflows. The week closed with the largest net outflow of -90.76 BTC since mid-May.