Institutions: Will They Bet Big On Cryptos?

by Marvin Dumont

Institutional investors can bring massive money to the table. The question is, “Will they?” when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

These large investors have hundreds of billions in deployable capital, but they are typically risk-averse. These institutions include family offices, retirement funds, pensions, university endowments and hedge funds.

Most won’t allocate more than a tiny part of their portfolio in a new and volatile asset class, but each institution can bet tens of millions of dollars (or more) into mainstream cryptos. Collectively institutional investors can kickstart another bull run or, if not, modest increases in crypto prices. That’s because their enthusiasm will likely be contagious and bring retail investors around the world along for the ride. Thus, the whole could be greater than the sum of the (institutional) parts.

Wall Street guru Mike Novogratz told CNBC in September: “We’re seeing institutions slowly getting into the space …You’re seeing lots of activity in the private markets.” He said new institutional investors could enter in Q1 or Q2 of 2019 and added that it only takes one major player to invest in the space for others to join in and bring loads of capital.

Utility and adoption are key factors for the industry. Usefulness implies value because an object (digital monies) helps people in some way. Utility leads to adoption. Adoption leads to higher valuations.

Apollo Foundation is building an all-in-one currency that gives users much utility: by enabling you to perform any blockchain-related task offered by other mainstream cryptos. The team’s vision for Apollo (APL) is to create a currency that fills the needs of all other top cryptos, and to give users streamlined access to a privacy currency.

Institutions are gradually seeing the merits of finance-related blockchain use cases. Thus, our team is optimistic about the Apollo roadmap: To become an all-in-one currency that has the best privacy features anywhere.

In November the head of Fidelity Digital Assets Tom Jessop said that the company has on-boarded 13,000 institutional investors to partake in their cryptocurrency offerings. The powerhouse investment firm is said to be considering adding more cryptos aside from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

This can be a pivotal development for the market.

Coin holders felt the pain of November’s bear market which saw crypto prices drop 40%. But this was largely influenced by negative media coverage such as regulators clamping down on ICOs and restrictions on blockchain-powered money.

The beneficial features of cryptos have merit, and 2019 will be an important year to see whether more big and small businesses will adopt the financial technology.

For updates, follow Apollo on Twitter.

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” ― Peter Drucker