Institutions Begin to Explore the Cryptocurrency Space
The most trending cryptocurrency narratives in 2018 were undoubtedly “institutions are coming” and “adoption is coming”. This is currently seen as a failed narrative, but it has played it in a more realistic way than most expected. Fidelity, J.P. Morgan, and others have more than just dipped their toes into crypto and continued to expand in the space with a tempered approach, as reported by SWFI.
The Big Boys of Institutional Crypto
Institutions kept their expectations high for the cryptocurrency industry as many new products and services were launched over the course of 2019. These are players with exposure to both sides of finance, so they aren’t splashing around obscene amounts of capital.
What many people fail to understand is that the launch of several hundred million dollar venture capital and hedge funds in the space means crypto native institutions are in the works, on their way to potentially becoming goliaths. Companies that cut their teeth in the traditional financial markets decades ago – some centuries ago – have also been fairly active in the space.
State Street has been a quiet giant of the blockchain world; the financial services giant is extremely positive about the future of blockchain and has laid out their expectations in a blockchain specific presentation. State Street runs a lot of intensive back-end operations, so the crux of their recent expansion plans has been automation. With the opportunity to further this agenda with blockchain, the firm has invested significant capital and effort into the development of blockchain systems.
More Liquidity, More Interest
The entire cryptocurrency market is merely a blip relative to gold, stocks, debt, and real estate. This industry has a long way to go before reaching sizes of that magnitude, but as it converges towards it, liquidity and interest in the market will expand.
Whilst more investors come in, and more lives and corporations rely on the market as they do with stocks and real estate, cryptocurrency will rapidly grow until it reaches a plateau of stable growth and mass utility. After all, the end game is for decentralized systems to take precedence in society as we know it
