“The Virus Is Spreading”: Institutional Money Pours Into Crypto
The widespread arrival of institutional investors has long been seen as the “holy grail” for the crypto industry’s maturation. And surprisingly, despite bearish market conditions, a report from Morgan Stanley has outlined the fact that this holy grail could be rapidly approaching.Discussing a recently-released , which was titled “Update: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain,” Alex Kruger, a world-renowned Argentinian market specialist, claimed that there have “been considerable institutional inflows since January,” alluding to the sentiment that today’s crypto asset values are ripe for the proverbial institutional picking. However, citing data revealed through the 50-page document from the legendary financial institution, which gave a deep-dive of the current state of crypto, Kruger added that it isn’t cut and dried.
1/ Institutional money is coming they said. The virus is spreading they said … Data indicates there have been considerable institutional inflows since January, yet penetration is at pre-bubble levels. — Alex Krüger (@krugermacro)
OTC Desks, Not Crypto Exchanges
More optimistically, however, the non-action of this market could indicate that institutions have been siphoning their capital into crypto through over-the-counter (OTC) desks, not via traditional order book-style platforms that can be decimated by multi-million-dollar trades.As reported by NewsBTC, according to Bobby Cho, the global head of trading at Cumberland, DRW’s cryptocurrency trading division, hedge funds continue to issue a multitude of over-the-counter Bitcoin transactions, which are often over $100,000 per transaction. Cho explained what this fact meant, stating:
“What that’s showing you is the professionalization that’s happening across the board in this space. The Wild West days of crypto are really turning the corner.”Although this is all well and good on its own, Cho wasn’t the only industry insider to be spectating such transactions. Boston-based Circle corroborated this claim, with CEO Jeremy Allaire telling that Circle Invest has seen “triple-digit growth” in the number of individuals enrolling into its OTC business. So for now, it seems that bull-watchers will have to sit on their hands until retail buying pressure picks up.
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