According to Manuel Nordeste, vice president of Fidelity Digital Assets, pension plans are gradually becoming more receptive to the idea of investing in cryptocurrencycurrency assets. He said that other pension funds and defined benefit plans are just now starting to talk about cryptocurrencycurrency assets with their investment committees.
When Nordeste looked back on Fidelity Digital Assets’ early days in 2018, he saw that family offices, hedge funds, and specialist asset managers were the first to show interest, followed by bigger blue-chip hedge funds.
Nordeste emphasized that high-net-worth people and family offices, which are small-scale but knowledgeable investors, are becoming more involved in cryptocurrencycurrency investments.
“Now, we’re starting to have conversations with the larger, institutional investor types that have real money, and we’re getting some of those clients along with corporates and all of that,” he continued.
A recent Fidelity Digital Assets poll of the general market revealed that only 23% of pension plans had a favorable opinion of digital assets, compared to 80% of high-net-worth individuals.
Compared to last year, investor confidence in digital assets, such as Bitcoin, has increased in both the U.S. and Europe. Moreover, only 7% of pension plans have made investments in digital assets, compared to 48% of these individuals who do so now.
According to Nordeste, smaller companies are more flexible and willing to take on more risk because of their flexible investment mandates or occasionally, lack of them. This stands in stark contrast to pension plans, where rigid regulations often slow down decision-making processes and market participation.
Presently, opinions of digital assets as a whole are comparable to those of Bitcoin, with 51% of investors polled favorably regarding both. This is a significant change from 2021, when people had a more positive opinion on Bitcoin.
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