Asset management giant Fidelity has been making more active moves in the cryptocurrency industry over the past month. Fidelity Digital Assets will open Ether (ETH) trading to institutional clients on October 28. In late September, Fidelity launched a new Ethereum index fund for accredited investors in less than two weeks.
The firm continues to bring together the interests of institutional investors and cryptocurrencies with the new fourth annual Fidelity Digital Assets Institutional Investor Digital Assets Study. According to a CoinDesk press release, more than half (58%) of respondents invested in digital assets in the first half of 2022, and 74% plan to invest in the future.
The survey was conducted from January 2 to June 24 this year and covered the transition from a bull market to a bear market and included 1,052 institutional investors from the US, Europe and Asia. Respondents include family offices, digital and traditional hedge funds, pension funds, financial advisors, foundations and foundations and high net worth individuals.
"The increase in adoption reflected in the data bodes well for the digital asset industry in the first half of the year," said Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets. "Although the markets have faced headwinds in recent months, we believe that the fundamentals of digital assets remain stable and the institutionalization of the market in recent years has allowed them to weather recent developments."
The groups with the largest share of investments in digital assets, 87%, are cryptocurrency hedge funds and venture capital funds, which will naturally grow in the market. The next largest groups of cryptocurrency investors were wealthy individuals and financial advisors.
Asia has the highest ownership of digital assets at 69% compared to the 2021 survey, followed by Europe (67%) and the United States (42%), with the latter two regions recording increases of 11 and 9 points respectively .
The vast majority of investors (88%) found digital assets attractive due to factors such as high potential, technological innovation and decentralization. Those who avoided investing in cryptocurrencies cited price volatility and security concerns.
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