In a recent interview, BitMEX CEO Alexander Heptner shared his thoughts on institutional investors, believing they still have an appetite for cryptocurrencies and Ethereum.
At the Token2049 conference in Singapore on September 28, a cryptocurrency executive told Cointelegraph that during this bear market, "there has not been a single slowdown in the institutional development of cryptocurrency."
Institutions and players in the financial industry typically use bear markets to innovate, he added. In bull markets there is more supply pressure, but bear markets offer the luxury of more time.
Heptner also stated that adoption has a long horizon for the financial industry, so organizations buy and hold crypto assets, but currently the opposite can be said for the retail sector.
When asked whether institutions or retail will end the bear market, he said that while institutions continue to push, retail continues to pull.
"I think businesses are gearing up for the service and retail will come back and pick it up again."
The head of BitMEX is also confident that organizations will start flocking to Ethereum once again, as it has moved to a stock reference and has met environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements.
"Ethereum is the perfect protocol to build things on," he said, referring to the recent merger, before adding: "This is the perfect public opportunity to create an ESG-friendly financial product."
"Nowadays, ESG compliance is extremely important," he said, adding that institutions "can once again offer products to multiple audiences with one of their ordering points."
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A figure of 3,000 dollars in ETH is mentioned at the end of the year, and Höptner considers this as an opportunity, especially as the network becomes increasingly green and big banks use it. ETH is currently trading at $1,336, up 3.8% in the last 24 hours, so the next three months have a long way to go.
Cointelegraph reported last week that liquid trading products like Lido's stETH are more profitable and capital efficient than standard ETH. Therefore, the popularity of ETH storage will increase if it expires.