With Bitcoin Hype, Institutional investors and portfolio managers have come to view the major cryptocurrency as a “significant place” to invest, according to Fred Pye, CEO of 3iQ, Canada's first bitcoin fund issuer.
In an interview with Cointelegraph during Bitcoin 2023, Pye spoke about how Canada's advanced regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges could attract investors into the digital asset market. In the global inflationary environment and macroeconomic challenges, fund man ages and institutional investors operating diversified portfolio assets seek alternative investment strategies , Pye said.
"The FOMO in Bitcoin is gone; it's all moved to AI [artificial intelligence]. So now institutions and proper portfolio managers, the people who run diversified portfolios are now starting to look at Bitcoin as a Serious place." It's not just about maxim izing profits, Pye said. For institutional investors, crypto use cases will be a growing trend in the coming years. "The theme for 2024 is definitely use cases. So, we have this wonderful technology, now let's put this wonderful technology into practice," he said.
Regulatory challenges to institutional adoption are nothing new, but Canada has pioneered the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) amid the SEC's relatively passive stance on cryptocurrencies. An ETF is a portfolio of assets in which shares are traded on the stock market .It combines the characteristics and potential advantages of mutual funds, stocks and bonds.
Canadian Regulators Recently Approved Several Cryptocurrency ETFs, Including Bitcoin and Ether, Products from 3iQ, Purpose Investments, and Evolve Funds Group have attracted millions of dollars for crypto offerings.
“They've never been mispriced,” Pye said of running a regulated digital asset ETF in Canada, adding, “Running a bitcoin ETF is no different than running a gold ETF. We track bitcoin in the same way.” Price. They' re cheap, and they work. [...] We can cryptographically trace the provenance of bitcoins, so we only buy clean bitcoins. I think those are characteristics that people care about.” Canada's latest move towards digital assets relies on a public consultation on a central bank digital currency, in which the local monetary authority asked the country's citizens what characteristics they would like a potential digital Canadian dollar to have. The results of the Canadians' consultation are expected later this year.
