Binance Research has released the second edition of its Institutional Market Insights report, the first edition of which was released back in June. The report has been released with an intention to provide further insights into institutional crypto-markets. To compile the aforementioned report, Binance stated that it surveyed over 76 VIP and institutional clients that are using the services offered by the Binance ecosystem, many of whom have years of experience in traditional, as well as cryptocurrency markets.
According to the report, despite several ongoing legal issues, USD-backed Tether remains the most widely used stablecoin across the market due to its greater liquidity and higher market capitalization relative to competing tokens. However, the report added that exchange-backed stablecoins such as Coinbase’s USDC and Binance’s BUSD are sparking “more prominent interest from many respondents.”
Among the most commonly reported trading strategies are high-frequency prop trading, technical analysis, and market-making, Binance Research found.
The report also claimed that clients did not consider Facebook’s crypto-project, Libra, or CBDCs a risk to the industry, with many ranking them as growth-drivers. Interestingly, privacy concerns, decentralized exchanges, and lending services did not seem to spark any sort of reaction from the clients surveyed.
On the flip side, however, staking has purportedly picked up interest, likely because it operates at the protocol level, while lending relies more on trust.
Subsequently, the report added that institutional clients mostly expect Bitcoin to maintain a market dominance of around 69% by the end of 2019, echoing their fear of an alt-season and losing interest from retail participants. Survey data also showed that most clients expected BTC to rise to $10K, ETH to $210, and XRP to $0.30, by the end of the year.
If these cryptocurrencies fail to meet the expected targets set by Binance survey’s sample clients, the entire industry could see waning interest from institutional investors going into the new year.
