Investment management firm State Street says its institutional clients are not hesitating to invest in crypto assets despite falling prices.” “There is a belief that the asset class is here to stay,” said a State Street executive.
State Street on institutional demand for crypto
Leading investment advisory firm State Street sees unabated institutional demand for cryptocurrencies despite the market sell-off, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.
Irfan Ahmad, product lead for Asia Pacific at State Street Digital, said the banking giant’s institutional clients remain enthusiastic about crypto and its underlying technology. He was quoted as saying.
During June and July, things were really hot in terms of activity, we saw that institutional clients did not necessarily double down, but they were not really deterred from making strategic bets on the asset class itself.
“I think this gives us confidence that this asset class is here to stay,” this officer emphasized.
State Street (NYSE: STT) operates in more than 100 geographic regions and employs approximately 40,000 people worldwide. The financial services giant had $38.2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.5 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.
Its digital arm, State Street Digital, offers solutions for a variety of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, stable coins, digital cash, and central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to its website.
Ahmad noted that many major investment firms, such as Goldman Sachs, have launched crypto products and may move further into the crypto space In April, Goldman Sachs offered its first bitcoin-backed loan.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, launched a spot bitcoin private trust in August.” Despite the plunge in the digital asset market, we are still seeing considerable interest from some institutional clients,” the firm said.
A State Street executive further elaborated, sharing that institutional clients have inquired about the crypto product launch.
Indeed, our clients have spoken to us more realistically about how they might be able to launch products or what our capabilities are in the future to support those product launches.
Last July, State Street announced the expansion of its cryptocurrency services, citing a surge in demand from traditional funds.
Crypto exchanges are also seeing increased demand from institutional investors. Bitstamp’s CEO said in August that his trading platform was attracting “massive crypto interest” from institutional clients; in June, Binance launched a new platform for VIPs and institutional investors to better support institutional clients. The company launched a new platform for VIPs and institutional investors to better support its institutional clients.
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