Fidelity has conducted another survey among institutions. The firm followed the lead when it discovered an increased appetite for digital asset investment among them.
Fidelity Feels the Pulse
The financial services behemoth has thus discovered that more institutions want crypto. Its survey shows the figure has increased from that of last year despite the market’s poor performance.
Fidelity discovered that 58% of its survey respondents already own digital assets as of the first six months of this year. That represents a 6% increase from last year, according to the firm’s fourth Institutional Investors’ Digital Assets Study.
The President of Fidelity Digital Assets, Tom Jessop, said the fundamentals of the digital assets industry remain strong. This is despite the fact that the market has encountered a strong headwind in the last months. The market’s institutionalization through the years got it ready to weather the storm.
The survey examined up to 1,052 institutions in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Asia has the highest number of institutional digital asset holders. About 69% of the institutions in the region said they have investments in crypto assets.
Global Adoption Picks Up Pace
The figures were lower in Europe at 65% and in the United States at 42%. These figures represent an increase of 11 points and 9 points respectively from last year.
Investors with higher net worth were found to drive the European and US gains. Whereas financial advisors equally added to the increase witnessed in Europe.
In all, the global usage of digital assets is higher this year among venture capital firms at 87%. They are closely followed by individual investors with a high net worth doing 82%. And after them come the financial advisors doing 73%.
The COO at Ark Invest, Tom Staudt, said to Blockworks earlier in the month that advisors are critical to massive crypto adoption. Ark, and firms like Valkyrie Investment, began Separately Managed Accounts for crypto investment professionals.
Institutional investors now have a better understanding of the value and technology of digital assets despite the market decline. This is the view of Fidelity Digital Assets’ Research Director, Chris Kuiper. He added that the increased investment and infrastructure products available to them contributed to the better adoption pace.
Yet, Various Means of Exposure
Kuiper said further that the surveyed investors mentioned the high potential and innovation available in the crypto industry. It also has an enabling decentralization mechanism and uncorrelation with other asset classes.
Almost 40% of those institutions buy their digital assets directly. And Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popularly bought assets.
The Digital Assets arm of Fidelity is preparing to launch an Ethereum-trading unit for institutional clients. The company’s spokesman told Blockworks this will commence on the 28th of October.
Industry observers say Ethereum would be the more attractive buy for institutions. This results from the network’s migration from the proof-of-work protocol to the proof-of-stake.
Out of the surveyed institutions, 35% of them reveal that they buy investments that hold crypto. And 30% of them buy investments that hold other digital asset companies. While 20% prefer to get crypto exposure through futures contracts.
This article was written by Patrick Hagerty on the Exploring Digital Assets on 25.10.2022 and has been published here with permission.