Grayscale’s Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary says interest from institutions in Bitcoin has doubled over the quarter. During an interview, the sales and business development exec addressed major investment in digital assets.
Bitcoin traders dream of an eventual exchange-traded fund for the cryptocurrency.
“Institutional interest” is a watch word of paramount proportions.
Bitcoin traders like institutional interest. So does the mainstream media.
Sharif-Askary addressed this, saying to the Block earlier this week:
“I get asked this a lot – there’s this rhetoric in the media about when are institutional investors going to get involved […] it’s so funny because it’s ironic. We see institutional investors invest with us all the time and that’s been the case for a long time now.”
The second quarter of 2019 reportedly saw $85 million in new investments for Grayscale.
Grayscale operates the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, which is a listed asset you can invest in.
GBTC was up slightly at press time.
Rocky market conditions don’t always diminish demand for derivative products like GBTC. Source: Google
Wall Street Still Slowly Waking Up To Crypto
Last year this time, the premium for GBTC was down 10%, but traders were expecting more ETF hype to fuel a rebound.
It’s unclear what did eventually fuel a jump in the BTC price, but in the intervening months the core BTC price has seen a strict gain of several thousand dollars. Derivative prices have been all over the place, and futures on both sides have matured as a result of occasional volatility.
Bitcoin recently tanked in a mild manner. Mild, considering that it is a cryptocurrency. If it were a stock, it would be considered overly toxic. However, in crypto trading, we will instead see a consolidation when the price drops — price drops being nothing more than a transfer of wealth from the weak handed to the strong.
“Weak hands” is a trading expression for someone who lets the markets scare them away from profits that would otherwise be attainable.
