"Large institutions with more than $5 million in assets are only concerned about Bitcoin." On January 18, New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) CEO Robert Gutmann expressed this view in the media, which was refuted by Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein .
Sonnenshein believes that most institutional investors will choose Bitcoin for their first investment in cryptocurrency, but we can see that more and more institutional investors have diversified their choices. He put out his argument, "Grayscale's BCH and ETH trusts have grown significantly compared to 18 months ago."
Public data shows that in the second half of 2020, Grayscale Fund ETH holdings increased from US$350 million in early June to US$2.165 billion, an increase of 6 times; BCH holdings increased from US$5.29 million to US$83.51 million, an increase of 15 times ; LTC's holdings rose even more staggeringly, rising from US$94 million to US$145 million.
ETH, LTC, and BCH, which are regarded as "mainstream" assets in the currency circle, seem to be difficult to be regarded as "mainstream" by more traditional enterprises and the financial industry like Bitcoin. High volatility and concerns about regulation have all become obstacles to Old Money.
In October last year, data showed that 15 of the world's listed companies were involved in Bitcoin investment or designed related trading products. Of course, this includes Grayscale, but these 15 companies still exist in a fraction. You must know that there are more than 5,400 companies on the Nasdaq market in the US stock market.
For the crypto asset circle, the gray scale is the representative of mainstream traditional institutions, but in the sequence of traditional capital and enterprises, the gray scales of heavy storage of encrypted assets are still non-mainstream.
Grayscale CEO challenged the saying that "big institutions only look at BTC".
On January 19, Bitcoin once again tested $37,000, and the lowest fell back to around $35,000. OKEx's BTC/USD index showed that as of 2 pm, BTC was quoted at 36,331 US dollars. Five days ago, Bitcoin once again stood for $40,000.
Bitcoin prices have retraced many times in recent times, but they are still the subject of attention of large US financial institutions.
In the new US financial radio program "The Scoop", Robert Gutmann, CEO of NYDIG, a digital investment group in New York, stated that most serious investors who spoke with him are only interested in the cryptocurrency (BTC) with the largest market value. "Recently In a conversation, among large institutions with assets of more than 50 million U.S. dollars, 100% of them are related to Bitcoin when they carefully consulted on asset allocation, and 0% of those consulting other encrypted assets.”
Gutmann also said that large institutions began to treat Bitcoin. Interest is related to the overall macro background in 2020. He believes that central banks of various countries have adopted active monetary policies to respond to the economic sluggishness under the new crown epidemic, highlighting the advantages of the limited amount of bitcoin as a company's alternative reserve assets.
Gutmann's view that "large institutions only pay attention to Bitcoin" was posted on social media and was refuted by Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of the Grayscale Company of the Crypto Asset Trust.
He replied under the relevant Twitter quoting Robert Gutmann's opinion for reporting that the organization will allocate funds to assets other than Bitcoin. "Grayscale's BCH and ETH have grown significantly compared to 18 months ago. This is something I didn’t expect before.”
In the second half of last year, the value of Grayscale ETH's holdings increased by 6 times.
As Michael Sonnenshein stated, in the second half of 2020, Grayscale Fund’s ETH holdings rose from $350 million in early June to 21.65. Billion US dollars, up more than 6 times; BCH holdings rose from 5.29 million US dollars to 83.51 million US dollars, an increase of 15 times; LTC is more objective, Grayscale’s holdings on it rose from 940,000 US dollars to 145 million US dollars, with 154 Times of growth.
In fact, in addition to BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC, which are considered mainstream assets in the currency circle, are no longer only on the gray "shelf".
In November last year, the American version of Alipay Paypal launched an encrypted asset transaction service, allowing users to purchase four types of encrypted assets: BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH with legal currency. On December 11, DBS Bank, Singapore's largest commercial bank, announced the launch of an encrypted asset exchange and stated that it would support four types of encrypted asset transactions: BTC, ETH, XRP and BCH.
The view that "large institutions only pay attention to Bitcoin" is too absolute, but it is not unreasonable for Robert Gutmann to say that qualified investors are "interested in the cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization". , For traditional investors with large funds, the crypto assets with the largest market capitalization and long-term growth have made them more trustworthy.
Of course, among the traditional enterprises and financial institutions that have heavily warehoused encrypted assets, Grayscale is the most active. Its assets under management include not only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ether The mainstream assets of Classic (ETC) also include Zeccoin (ZEC), Horizon (ZEN) and Stellar Lumens (XLM), which are the subject of privacy and payment concepts.
Public data shows that in December last year, ZEC, XLM and ZEN in Grayscale Trust were all increasing their holdings. Among them, ZEC increased its holdings by 22,906 (+11.89%) monthly, with a total holdings of 215,606; ZEN increased its holdings by 104791 ( +23.28%), with a total holdings of 554,905; XLM has the largest increase in holdings, increasing its holdings by 8230287 (+43.46%) in December last year, reaching a total holdings of 27,166,204.
On January 10, Grayscale founder and former CEO Barry Silbert tweeted that “2021 will be the year of privacy, decentralization and censorship resistance.” He listed ZEC and ZEN at the end of this tweet. .
The public increase in holdings and the founder's "calling orders" have allowed ZEC, ZEN and XLM to see a significant increase in the secondary market. According to non-trumpet accounts, as of 4 pm on January 19, ZEC temporarily reported 106.6 US dollars, an increase of 47% in the past month, ZEN temporarily reported 29.2 US dollars, an increase of 143.9% in the past month, and XLM temporarily reported 0.307 US dollars, nearly one The monthly increase was 72.4%.
There are only 15 listed companies that invest in or involve BTC
Grayscale, Paypal, Micro Strategy, Square Inc, DBS Bank... These companies and financial institutions are probably the pioneers of traditional industries to meet the wave of the crypto world, but even if they work together, this force It is still not big, because more traditional companies and institutions still hold a conservative and cautious attitude towards crypto assets.
High volatility is the first threshold to frighten them.
Although listed companies such as Micro Strategy and Square Inc. have invested most of the company’s cash reserves in Bitcoin, it is conceivable that cash is still a rigid need for the maintenance of the core business of the company. Once the crypto assets they invest in fall sharply, the assets will also be inevitable. Will experience shrinkage.
According to Bloomberg News, after the 30% drop in Bitcoin prices last week, Wall Street chief financial officers are more cautious about investing company funds in Bitcoin. Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, said, “If a company buys financial assets for speculative purposes unrelated to its core business, it will be a red flag for investors,” said Robert Willens, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. after last week's price volatility, these funds invest Bitcoin could pose a risk CFOs do not want to bear. it might be a sensible strategy, but if not, it will threaten a company's survival. "
This is another major concern of conservative companies.
In December last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defined XRP as an "investment contract", which belongs to securities, and initiated a lawsuit against the issuer Ripple. Since then, the US compliant crypto asset exchange Coinbase delisted XRP, and XRP is no longer in the list of trust products of Gray Fund.
Companies and institutions that dare to try to invest in encrypted assets will also face some uncertain changes. Ripple's regulatory prosecution is only one of them, and there are also rapid iterations from the market.
Although BCH, ETH, ETC, and LTC are no longer in the trouble of being accused of being "securities", their "mainstream status" is being impacted. These currencies listed in the vanguard's "order" list are not ruled out Will be replaced.
Judging from recent market trends, the rise of new assets such as Polkadot (DOT) and Chainlink (LINK) is using market value to leave LTC and BCH behind.
After Polkadot opens the cross-chain slot auction, the pledge will increase the demand for DOT. Market supply and demand have been reflected in prices. In the past week, DOT rose from 6.87 US dollars to 19.4 US dollars, an increase of over 130%.
AItcoin data shows that as of 4 pm on January 19, DOT temporarily reported 16.66 US dollars, with a circulating market value of 16.329 billion US dollars, ranking fourth in the market value list of the entire market. During the same period, LTC's circulating market value was 10.947 billion US dollars, ranking seventh.
BCH temporarily reported 478.7 US dollars, with a circulating market value of 8.92 billion US dollars, ranking ninth.
Another asset that continued to climb the list last year is LINK, which is the underlying token of Chainlink that provides oracle solutions. It was still around US$4 at the beginning of June last year, and broke US$20 in August. As of 4 pm on January 19, LINK temporarily reported US$22.21, with a circulating market value of US$8.899 billion, which is only less than US$1 billion behind BCH. The two sides are competing for the 8th place in the market value rankings.
In the past, in the perception of people in the currency circle, the top ten assets by market value often have mainstream attributes. Those who invest and hold them with real money build a strong consensus for them. However, the constant changes in the "top ten" have also made the "consensus" no longer loyal. EOS is the most obvious case. The 9 assets held by Grayscale Funds on the 19th are not all mainstream currencies with high market value. These assets have some other commonalities. They have existed in the world of encrypted assets long enough, either Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcoin, the representatives of blockchain 1.0 and 2.0, or the forked coins of these representatives, provide new solutions.
The gray "belief" is also reflected in the holdings of its trust products. According to data from AICoin, as of January 19, Grayscale’s BTC holdings were the heaviest in value, exceeding US$22.9 billion; followed by ETH, with holdings value of US$3.424 billion; LTC and BCH holdings were valued at more than US$100 million, and the rest The holding value of assets is less than 100 million US dollars.
The total scale of encrypted assets managed by Grayscale has now reached 27 billion US dollars. In October last year, another set of data showed that 15 of the world's listed companies were involved in Bitcoin investment or designed related trading products, which of course included Grayscale.
However, the volume of "15" is only a fraction of the global listed companies, and there are more than 5,400 companies in the Nasdaq market of US stocks alone. It can be seen that the journey of Bitcoin into the vision of traditional enterprises on a large scale is still very far away, let alone the encrypted assets that rank behind it.
For the crypto asset circle, the gray scale is the representative of mainstream traditional institutions, but in the sequence of traditional capital and enterprises, the gray scale of encrypted assets is still non-mainstream.