The Joy of Investing

Of the family offices that responded to the survey, 22% had $5 billion in assets under management, and 45% managed between $1 billion and $4.9 billion.

Goldman Sachs’ survey arrived a couple of months after it published a research report which concluded that cryptocurrencies are a legitimate asset class. In May, the bank declared: ​​”Clients and beyond are largely treating [Bitcoin] as a new asset class, which is notable—it’s not often that we get to witness the emergence of a new asset class.”

https://decrypt.co/76598/goldman-sachs-18-worlds-super-rich-see-crypto-inflation-hedge

JPMorgan has reportedly become the first large US bank to allow its financial advisors to give wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds.

The bank told its advisors in a memo earlier this week that, as of July 19, they can buy and sell five crypto funds on behalf of a client, Business Insider reported.

The offerings include Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust (OBTC), as well as four from Grayscale Investments: its Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust and the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust.
https://blockworks.co/jpmorgan-reportedly-to-allow-clients-to-access-crypto-funds/

“QETH11 follows the same Ethereum index used by the CME Group, the CME CF Ether Reference Rate. For this, the ETF buys physical Ethereum and carries out custody with transparency and security for you“, QR said in a statement.

This means that investors seeking to buy Ethereum without direct exposure to the actual cryptocurrency can now do so via this ETF, using any supported brokerage provider.

QR Asset Management will manage the ETF, which the firm says will benefit from Gemini’s “secure institutional custody”. Gemini is a US crypto exchange and custody provider that has previously sought and failed to convince the US SEC to approve their application for a Bitcoin ETF.

The approval of the two ETFs—first BTC and now ETH points to Brazil’s continued support for crypto assets, adding to the clarity within its regulatory environment.

https://coinjournal.net/news/brazil-approves-latin-americas-first-ethereum-etf/

Institutional investor demand to get access to Bitcoin, Ether and other digital currencies is only rising, Jessop said. The first clients of Fidelity Digital tended to be family offices and hedge funds, he said. That’s now expanding to retirement advisers and corporations that want to hold crypto as an asset class.

“Bitcoin has been the entry for a lot of institutions,” Jessop said. “It’s now really opening up a window on what else is going on in the space.” A big shift is in “the diversity of interest” from new and existing customers, he said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-12/fidelity-digital-to-expand-staff-by-70-on-strong-crypto-demand?sref=PXN7mzI6

“Issuing a central bank digital currency would help to maintain the autonomy of domestic payment systems and the international use of a currency in a digital world,” the ECB said in a report.

https://blockworks.co/european-central-bank-launches-24-month-investigation-into-digital-euro/

The global investment management company, Capital Group, ranks among one of the oldest and largest investment management firms in the world with over $7.6 billion in revenue. As of December 31, 2020, the firm said it manages more than $2.3 trillion in equity and fixed income assets for millions of individuals and institutional investors around the world.

The investment gives CII an indirect line into the cryptocurrency market, as MicroStrategy is heavily invested in bitcoin and has bought over 105,000 bitcoins for approximately $2.741 billion, as of late June.

https://blockworks.co/capital-group-buys-12-2-stake-in-bitcoin-proxy-microstrategy/?oly_enc_id=2460C7090134A6V

https://a16z.com/2021/06/24/crypto-fund-iii/

We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto. We are radically optimistic about crypto’s potential to restore trust and enable new kinds of governance where communities collectively make important decisions about how networks evolve, what behaviors are permitted, and how economic benefits are distributed. That’s why today we’re pleased to announce a new $2.2 billion fund to continue investing in crypto networks and the founders and teams building in this space. This represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the a16z crypto team.

https://www.coindesk.com/binance-nft-marketplace-warhol-dali

Binance’s non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace is set to launch Thursday with an auction featuring works by Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali.

Trading in the marketplace will commence at 10 a.m. local time in Singapore (02:00 UTC, or 10 p.m. ET Wednesday), Binance said.
The “Genesis” auction will be the marketplace’s first premium event – auctions for high-end work by select artists – and will feature Warhol’s “Three Self Portraits” and a digitized NFT of Dali’s “Divine Comedy: rebeget.”

https://blockworks.co/building-the-plumbing-for-institutional-capital-markets/?oly_enc_id=2460C7090134A6V

“It’s still early. We are excited to see this connectivity happen. It will draw in a lot more capital into the asset class, and it will draw in the incremental user and adopter of this ecosystem and asset class,” he said.

And all of this matters because LMAX Group traded 75 billion in crypto in May with just 500 customers. Imagine if it had 5,000.

https://blockworks.co/morgan-stanley-blockchain-capital-lead-48m-funding-for-securitize/?oly_enc_id=2460C7090134A6V

“On the platform, you will be able to access a range of opportunities whether it’s crypto yield funds or startups or real estate developments, you’re going to see a broader universe of primary offerings as well as secondary offerings,” Wagner said. “Looking forward, that’s the evolution you’re going to see and as more people become comfortable with crypto, it’s going to become the means for providing services that is taken for granted in public markets.”