It is as clear as the sky that Bitcoin is forming higher highs and higher lows, hence, there must be strong hands pushing its prices upward. Definitely, it is not us, the retail investors, doing it. So, who are these big institutional investors into Bitcoin?
1. Grayscale Investments
This institution was established by Digital Currency Group in 2013. The company aims to provide investors an "established, trusted, and accountable partner to help them navigate the gray areas of digital currency investing." It claims to be the world's largest digital currency asset manager, with more than $ 12.2 Billion under its portfolio, as of Nov. 30, 2020.
Grayscale has very comprehensive array of investment products representing nearly 80% of the digital asset market capitalization. There are 2 types of investment products being offered by the company, namely: Single Asset and Diversified.
The first type of asset is single type. There are 9 Trust Funds which cover all the major crypto currencies under this classification. The assets are as follow: Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, ,Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, Horizen Trust, Litecoin Trust, Stellar Lumes Trust, XRP and Trust, Zcash Trust.
The second type functions like an index fund which combines Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.
Readers are advised to go to their website directly for more information about their different investment products.
2. Microstrategy, Incorporated
MicroStrategy Incorporated is a company that provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services. The company was founded in 1989 by Michael J. Saylor and Sanju Bansal. It has a very good reputation among private industries and government offices. Just to name a few, its partners/clients include 3M, Accenture, Amazon, United States Postal Service, NASA, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and among others.
Last December 21, 2020, it announced that it bought an additional 29,646 bitcoins for $650.0 million at an average price of approximately $21,925 per bitcoin. With this addition, the company now owns a total of 70,470 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $1.125 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $15,964 per bitcoin.
In its press release regarding the purchase, its CEO, Michael J. Saylor said, “The acquisition of additional bitcoins . . . reaffirms our belief that bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value.
3. Square, Incorporated
Square is an e-commerce ecosystem. Its products, which include software with hardware, allow sellers to turn mobile devices and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions. Once a seller downloads the Square Point of Sale mobile application, they can take their first payment.
Square is not new to crypto currency deals. As early as 2018, the Company had already offered users of its app called "Cash App" to buy and sell bitcoins. However, this was seen more of as marketing strategy to popularized its app back then rather than strategic move to increase the company's value.
In Oct, 2020, the Company disclosed that it purchased $ 50 Million worth of bitcoins believing that the crypto currency is an instrument of economic empowerment which provides a way to participate in a global monetary system which is consistent with Square's vision.
Aside from these 3, do you know of other institutions participating in this bull run? Hit like and comment below.
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