Institutional investors are buying through crypto winter

Institutional investors continue to see the long-term potential of crypto and have been loading their bags throughout the year, according to a survey. A survey of institutional investors suggests that their cryptocurrency allocations have increased over the last year despite the industry going through a prolonged crypto winter. A Coinbase-sponsored survey released on Nov. 22 conducted between Sep. 21 and Oct. 27, found 62% of institutional investors invested in crypto had increased their allocations over the past 12 months.

In comparison, only 12% had decreased their crypto exposure, indicating most institutional investors may be bullish on digital assets in the long term despite prices falling, according to the survey. 

More than half of the investors surveyed said they were currently, or planning, to use a buy-and-hold approach for cryptocurrencies, with the belief that crypto prices will stay flat and range bound over the next 12 months. Additionally, 58% of respondents said they expected to increase their portfolio's allocation to crypto over the next three years, with nearly half "strongly agreeing" that crypto valuations will increase over the long term. As has been widely reported before, regulatory uncertainty was once again the factor most investors were concerned about when weighing up whether to invest in crypto, particularly among those planning to invest in the next 12 months where 64% noted concerns.

The representative sample of the Coinbase survey consisted of 140 institutional investors based in the United States, who collectively have assets under management totaling around $2.6 trillion. The survey was conducted by business-to-business publisher Institutional Investor’s Custom Research Lab. In October, a survey of institutional investors by Fidelity Investments subsidiary, Fidelity Digital Assets, released on Oct. 27 had similar findings, and in an interview with Cointelegraph, Fidelity head of research Chris Kuiper noted:

“They're agnostic to some of this crazy volatility and price because they're looking at it from a very long-term perspective. They’re looking over the next years, five years, decade or more.”

It is worth noting that both these surveys were conducted prior to the collapse of FTX, which according to CoinShares has led to a record surge in short-investment products, while total assets under management of crypto institutional investors are now at $22 billion, the lowest in two years. CoinShares' James Butterfill on Nov. 21 said the increase in short investments is likely “a direct result of the ongoing fallout from the FTX collapse."