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Bitcoin News Cryptocurrency News

Bitwise Files For Approval To Have Its Bitcoin Fund Publicly Trade On OTCQX

Bitwise Asset Management, a leading crypto asset manager with over $700 million in assets under management, announced today that it has begun the regulatory process to allow shares of the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund to trade on OTCQX.

If approved, shares of the fund would be available for trading in traditional brokerage accounts and for custody with many traditional custodians.

The company has not yet announced a ticker for the fund.

“We are tremendously excited to take the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund down the path recently taken by the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX: BITW),” said Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro. “We have been managing this fund since 2018, offering investors a cost-effective, convenient, and secure means of gaining investment exposure to bitcoin, and are excited to potentially see shares of the fund quoted on OTCQX.”

The Fund charges a 1.5% expense ratio, which includes costs related to custody, tax, accounting, and management fees, lower than competing products. The fund’s bitcoin is held with a regulated, insured, third-party custodian.

The Bitwise Bitcoin Fund opened for private placements by accredited investors in December 2018, and the private placement offering remains open via the Bitwise website.

“There is significant growth in interest from professional investors in accessing bitcoin as a tool to hedge their portfolios against rising inflationary risks,” added Matt Hougan, Bitwise chief investment officer. “Financial advisors in particular are taking note of the large allocations that hedge funds, institutions, insurance companies, and traditional asset managers are making to bitcoin, and based on our recent survey of nearly 1,000 financial advisors, many are deciding that now is the time to consider an allocation of their own.”

If cleared, the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund will be the second Bitwise fund cleared for public quotation: On December 9, shares of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX: BITW) became the first publicly traded crypto index fund in the United States, and began trading on the OTCQX Best Market.

Bitwise Asset Management is a leading provider of index and beta crypto funds. Based in San Francisco, Bitwise’s team combines expertise in technology with decades of experience in traditional asset management and indexing—coming from firms including Facebook, Google, Wealthfront, BlackRock, Fidelity, Deutsche Bank, IndexIQ, and ETF.com. Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and is a frequent commentator on crypto in the press. It has been profiled in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other leading publications. The firm is a trusted partner to financial advisors, RIAs, multifamily offices, hedge funds, and other professional investors as they navigate the crypto space. 

Bitwise Asset Management
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Bitcoin News Cryptocurrency News

50% More Financial Advisors Allocating Crypto Investments Over Last Year

Bitwise Asset Management

Bitwise Asset Management, a leading provider of crypto index funds, and ETF Trends, a leading source of exchange-traded fund news, tips, webcasts, and investing ideas, today released the findings of the Bitwise/ETF Trends 2021 Benchmark Survey Of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Cryptoassets.

Nearly 1,000 financial advisors answered a series of questions on cryptoassets and their use in client portfolios. Survey respondents included independent registered investment advisors, broker-dealer representatives, financial planners, and wirehouse representatives from across the U.S.

Among the key findings:

  • A Nearly 50% Increase In The Number Of Advisors Allocating To Crypto Compared With Last Year: The percentage of advisors allocating to crypto in client portfolios rose from 6.3% to 9.4% in 2020.
     
  • 17% Of Advisors Are Considering Making Their First Allocation To Crypto In 2021: Among advisors who are not currently allocating to crypto, 17% are either “definitely” (2%) or “probably” (15%) allocating in 2021. If all do so, it would more than double the number of advisors allocating to crypto, bringing adoption to over 1 in every 5 advisors.
  • The No. 1 Motivation For Advisors Is Crypto’s Uncorrelated Returns, And Inflation Hedging Is Of Rising Interest: 54% of advisors selected “uncorrelated returns” as a motivation for including crypto in portfolios. This finding was in line with last year’s survey results. “Inflation hedging” saw the largest uptick in interest, with 25% of advisors highlighting it as an attractive feature of crypto, up from just 9% last year.
     
  • Most Advisors Are Getting Questions About Crypto From Clients: 81% of all financial advisors reported receiving questions from clients on crypto in 2020, up from 76% in 2019.
     
  • Advisors Are Increasingly Optimistic About Bitcoin’s Price: 15% expect the price of bitcoin to exceed $100,000 within five years, up from just 4% in 2019. Meanwhile, the percentage expecting bitcoin’s price to fall to zero decreased sharply, from 8% in last year’s survey to 4% this year. This continues the trend of the last few years: In our 2019 survey, 14% of surveyed advisors thought the price would fall to zero.

“The survey shows it’s still early days for crypto, with less than 10% of advisors allocating today,” said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer for Bitwise. “At the same time, adoption and interest are growing: The survey suggests the number of advisors allocating could double or more in the year ahead.”

“Financial advisors are increasingly looking for exposure to alternative assets, and interest in crypto is rising,” said Tom Lydon, founder and CEO of ETF Trends. “We’ve also seen a steady progression of interest in crypto from clients of financial advisors in the three years we’ve run this survey together. I see no reason for that to change in the year to come.”

Complete findings of the survey are available in the report here.

The survey for the report was conducted in December 2020.

About Bitwise Asset Management

Bitwise Asset Management is a leading provider of index and beta crypto funds. Based in San Francisco, Bitwise’s team combines expertise in technology with decades of experience in traditional asset management and indexing—coming from firms including Facebook, Google, Wealthfront, BlackRock, Fidelity, Deutsche Bank, IndexIQ, and ETF.com. Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and is a frequent commentator on crypto in the press. It has been profiled in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other leading publications. The firm is a trusted partner to financial advisors, RIAs, multifamily offices, hedge funds, and other professional investors as they navigate the crypto space.

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Bitcoin News Cryptocurrency News Ethereum News Litecoin News

More Signs That Institutional Money Is Flowing Into Cryptocurrency

Institutional money flows into cryptocurrency

Bitwise Asset Management, a leading provider of crypto index funds, became the most recent example of the influx of institutional money into cryptocurrency by announcing today that it recently surpassed $500 million in assets under management (AUM), up $400 million from its previous report of $100 million in AUM on October 28, 2020.

The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX: BITW), which seeks to track an index of the 10 largest cryptoassets—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin—has seen the strongest demand, recently crossing over $400M in AUM.

The Bitwise Bitcoin Fund and Bitwise Ethereum Fund—which provide low-cost, professionally managed exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively—have seen increased demand as well.

“The speed at which professional investors are moving into crypto right now is remarkable,” said Hunter Horsley, cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Bitwise. “While adoption of crypto as an asset class and conviction around its role in portfolios rapidly expands, we continue to urge all investors to consider the risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies in general and the Bitwise Funds in particular.”

Bitwise saw record inflows into its funds during Q4 2020, surpassing the total cumulative inflows of 2018 and 2019 combined. The increased demand came primarily from Bitwise’s core audience, investment professionals, including financial advisors, hedge funds, corporate balance sheets, and other institutional investors.

Bitwise specializes in educating and supporting professional investors, with a senior team and staff from firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, Eaton Vance, Wealthfront, Facebook, J.P. Morgan, and iCapital. The Bitwise Funds offer ongoing private placements to accredited investors via www.bitwiseinvestments.com.

About Bitwise Asset Management

Bitwise Asset Management is a leading provider of index and beta crypto funds. Based in San Francisco, Bitwise’s team combines expertise in technology with decades of experience in traditional asset management and indexing—coming from firms including Facebook, Google, Wealthfront, BlackRock, Fidelity, Deutsche Bank, IndexIQ, and ETF.com.

Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and is a frequent commentator on crypto in the press. It has been profiled in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other leading publications. The firm is a trusted partner to financial advisors, RIAs, multifamily offices, hedge funds, and other professional investors as they navigate the crypto space.