One of the world’s largest crypto index fund managers is offering some unique insight into the current state of crypto adoption.
In a new interview with Real Vision, Bitwise Asset Management CEO Hunter Horsley breaks down the types of investors and trends that the firm is witnessing as Bitcoin plows through a fresh bear market phase.
In addition to working with thousands of self-directed high net worth individuals, tens of thousands of public shareholders of its publicly traded products, about 1,000 independent advisory firms and a few dozen institutions, Horsley says private banks and broker-dealers are beginning to take the plunge into the digital asset market.
“More recently, [there’s been] a really fascinating development just in the last, I want to say nine months. There are seven private banks and broker-dealers that have put our products on their platforms for their advisors and clients to be able to get access to the space.
The platforms that over the last nine months or twelve months, it’s been recent and ramping [up], are approving our products to get crypto exposure. They represent $2 trillion in assets and tens of thousands of advisors and millions of accounts.”
In addition, Horsley says the number of institutional advisors working with the firm is increasing at a rapid pace.
“In 2020, six percent of advisors said that they were allocating client money to crypto. That grew 50 percent year-over-year into 2021 to 9 percent. Still small. Meaningful because it’s a giant audience, but small. This year it’s supposed to grow another 70 percent to 16 percent of advisors allocating.
If you play that forward you’re at 50 percent of this segment having allocated by 2024. So it still feels early because 9 percent, 16 percent. Those don’t feel like everyone I talked to. But the rate is what’s important and the rate is a wave. A wave that’s gathering steam.”
Bitwise launched its first crypto index fund in 2017.
The firm now offers 14 crypto funds and exposure to over 30 different crypto assets and 10 NFT collections, with $1.3 billion in assets under management.
