Institutional interest in Bitcoin has seen a significant rise in 2019, as several derivative financial products on top of Bitcoin have flooded the market. Active exposure of these investors to the digital asset realm has brought back the debate about whether Bitcoin is the new “store of value.” According to Grayscale’s managing director Michael Sonnenshein, there has been a certain shift in perception for sure.
Sonnenshein appeared on ‘The Scoop‘ recently to discuss the impact of institutional investor’s exposure to the digital asset class. The managing director of the firm believed that although Gold has been the standard store of value for centuries, and it made sense in the physical age, but given the rapid growth of the digital monetary age, Bitcoin for sure is challenging to become the new store of value. He explained,
“It is now nearly 2020 and we’re starting to ask investors with this question which is, what constitutes a store of value? It historically has been gold but that may have made more sense for a physical age. As we are in fully immersing ourselves now in this digital age perhaps gold doesn’t hold up as much as it once did as that store of value and perhaps investors need to think about a digital store of value such as Bitcoin.”
Institutional investors hold the key for Bitcoin and any other digital asset to gain mainstream adoption, and as of today they are more aware and learned about Bitcoin and its potential as an investment than ever before. More importantly, these investors are using Bitcoin as a hedge fund and store of value to diversify their investment portfolio as well as make quick capital gains on their investment.
The increasing interest of institutional investors is evident from the fact that GrayScale registered its highest gain in the last quarter with over $250 million raised from the investors, Binance has registered the highest daily volumes of over $700 million from its Binance futures platforms. Bakkt has launched its futures contracts recently while CME’s futures contracts year-to-date volumes have seen a significant rise over the past year.
