Bitcoin Snowball Is Expected To Hit More Institutions in 2021
Institutionalization, professionalization, commercialization, and inclusion of bitcoin (BTC) in portfolios of hedge funds, treasuries and others is likely to continue its upwards trajectory, providing BTC with endorsement, recognition, and validation, further leading to adoption and price appreciation, according to industry insiders talking to Cryptonews.com.
The institutionalization of cryptocurrency was the emerging theme of 2020, said Seamus Donoghue, VP Sales and Business Development at METACO, a provider of security-critical digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, adding that, while the investment focus has largely been focused on BTC, ethereum (ETH) “will likely be a high beta alternative to the dominant narrative of Bitcoin as an institutional investment asset class.“ He said it’s possible for the same Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) which pushed retail into crypto and BTC’s price to its all-time high in 2017 to be replicated in 2021 as institutional FOMO.
He added that an acceleration in institutional money coming into BTC would have “a much larger and profound impact on the long term valuation of bitcoin–the risk is for a parabolic move in Bitcoin’s price in 2021.” It’s Donoghue’s opinion that,
There are many more positive expectations shared by experts. Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets, told Cryptonews.com that “it’s quite clear that bitcoin is making rapid progress in that it’s becoming an asset class that’s suitable addition to many investors’ portfolios.” Wall finds that the professionalization of bitcoin, as well as its inclusion in the portfolios of hedge funds, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and corporate treasuries is likely to only accelerate in 2021. “Retail investor adoption is likely to track this development,” he said.
Speaking of which, Erick Pinos, Americas Ecosystem Lead at open source blockchain Ontology (ONT), said that more large financial institutions will publicly announce that they have moved funds into BTC in 2021, which “will create a snowball effect not only for other large institutions to follow with their funds but also for the retail market to start moving more personal wealth into bitcoin.”
Seamus Donoghue added that retail will “play no small part in crypto” as they are given increasingly easier access to the markets. It’s bitcoin’s performance that will drive the narrative and, if the institutional market evolves as expected in 2021, rapidly expanding on-ramps will only add fuel to the fire. “Institutional investor adoption drives the build out of institutional infrastructure to support bitcoin’s adoption. This in turn provides the foundation for retail investment vehicles and retail on-ramps,” he said.
