According to a report by BNY Mellon, 91% of institutional asset managers, asset owners, and hedge funds are interested in tokenized assets. As per BNY Mellon CEO Robin Vince, 40% of them already hold crypto in their portfolios. Additionally, about 75% are invested in digital assets or are exploring the space.
On October 11th, BNY Mellon became the first major financial institution in the US to offer Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) custody services to institutional clients. The service allows select institutional clients the option of holding and transferring BTC and ETH on the same platform as stocks and bonds.
According to the BNY CEO, the crypto asset custody service is “the beginning of a much broader journey.” Vince imagines the tokenization of a plethora of assets and currencies. According to Vince, many of those assets can be better managed when tokenized. Nonetheless, Vince did say that it could take years, or even decades, for the industry to fully adopt tokenized assets.
What’s pushing institutions into crypto?
As per Vince, client demand was what pushed BNY Mellon to offer crypto services. Client demands have been instrumental in widespread crypto acceptance. Major institutions such as JP Morgan, have also included cryptocurrencies in their portfolio upon requests by clients.
Additionally, Coinbase Senior Advisor John D’Agostino, says that institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies is moving very fast. However, D’Agostino believed that US regulators have somewhat slowed the adoption curve.
Nonetheless, D’Agostino thinks that the tussle between the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commision) and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) is a good thing. He believed that “nobody fights over something that is going to go away.” Moreover, according to the Coinbase executive, the highly awaited crypto-related Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) will be approved eventually.
Regardless of the current market slump, institutions are not backing away from the emerging asset class. This shows the confidence that these financial giants have in digital assets.
At press time, the global crypto market cap stood at $961 billion, down by 1.3% in the last 24 hours.