The director of sales and business development at Grayscale, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager with $1.2 billion under management, affirms that more institutional investors are moving into the space.
In a new interview on BlockTV, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary says,
“We put out our Q1 investment report that discusses the kind of investors we’re seeing. We saw a few interesting themes. 2018 – we’re clearly in a bear market. You look at the last quarter of 2018 – institutions, specifically hedge funds – it was a negligible amount of influx. Q1 of 2019, we raised about $43 million.”
Grayscale experienced a 42% uptick in product inflows quarter-over quarter, from $30.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $42.7 million in the first quarter of 2019. The firm reports a major ramp-up from hedge funds with investments in Q1 2019 totaling $24 million, up 2,300% from under $1 million in Q4 of 2018.
Grayscale Q1 Investment Report Highlights
- Total Investment into Grayscale Products: $42.7 million
- Average Weekly Investment – All Products: $3.3 million
- Average Weekly Investment – Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: $3.2 million
- Average Weekly Investment – “Non-Bitcoin” Investment Products: <$0.1 million (Grayscale trusts for Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Horizen, Litecoin, Stellar Lumens, XRP, Zcash, and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund)
- Majority of investment came from institutional investors (73%) dominated by hedge funds (56%).
Sharif-Askary says investors have been waiting patiently.
“We are seeing an expansion of the investor base from family offices and wealthy individuals into more institutional investors who have been patient over the 2017 bull market and before, and are now taking a look at the world, and they see a world where there is value, where the infrastructure is in place for this to become a viable asset class.”
You can check out the Grayscale Digital Asset Report Q1 2019 here.
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