According to CoinShares, crypto-asset investment increased by 36% in 2021, hitting $9.3 billion, up from $6.8 billion the previous year. Furthermore, individual investors are not the only ones who are impacted. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried sees significant institutional investment in the crypto industry by the next year, with further investment from institutions expected in 2022.
“I’ve talked to every important bank, every huge investment bank, pension funds – all of them are looking at the sector,” he said in January.
But, not everyone is a fan of cryptocurrency. Regulators, in particular, have raised concerns.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB), the world’s banking watchdog, released research this week warning about the risks of virtual money. Although there is a growing link between conventional banking and cryptocurrency, this research warns of possible issues that may arise as a result of the adoption boom and asks national governments to devise measures to minimize these dangers in the future.
According to the FSB, financial institutions regarded to be of systemic significance are growing increasingly inclined to engage in transactions involving cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
Central banks and authorities are worried about the volatility of digital assets such as bitcoin and ether, as well as the potential for market manipulation and the systemic risk they may pose.
While this is true, many of the world’s major investment banks provide a range of opportunities for their clients to become involved with cryptocurrencies and the digital world in general.
Mainstream financial institutions are already endorsing cryptocurrencies, and many are bullish; some estimate that bitcoin could reach $100,000 or even more in the coming years. We’ll inform you about the most important changes in the digital world in this article.
Goldman Sachs
According to a financial institution, increasing crypto adoption will not automatically result in large profits for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In any case, the corporation believes in the promise of digital currencies and virtual worlds.
The desk will provide Bitcoin futures trading in 2021, making it the first large bank to do so.
Goldman Sachs expanded its crypto-related products after introducing bitcoin futures to its clients in 2018.
Customers of the bank’s wealth management section might potentially invest in cryptocurrencies.
Goldman Sachs strategists recently described an $8 trillion investment potential in the metaverse, which is built on crypto-technology and where users often use bitcoin to purchase land or other virtual assets, in a lengthy research report.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan became the first large U.S. financial services firm to offer retail consumers access to bitcoin money earlier this year.
In terms of the “metaverse,” JPMorgan recently published a white paper in which it said that the possibilities were “nearly limitless” and that the digital world might generate $1 trillion in revenue per year.
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley was a pioneer in the usage of bitcoin. For the first time in 11 months, it became the first bank to provide three bitcoin products to wealthy clients. The bank required a minimum investment of $2 million.
Cryptocurrencies, according to CEO James Gorman, represent a very modest part of the bank’s business, but they aren’t going away anytime soon. During a recent earnings call, he said, “I don’t think crypto is a fad.”
Morgan Stanley has approximately $300 million in total bitcoin exposure, according to CoinTelegraph. The bank also does cryptocurrency research.
BlackRock and Fidelity
Last month, the world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, filed an ETF based on blockchain and technology with the SEC. This would result in the creation of a worldwide map of cryptocurrency-focused businesses. According to CoinDesk, certain BlackRock investors may soon be allowed to trade cryptocurrencies via the business.
According to a source quoted by CoinDesk, BlackRock would allow its clients, including significant public pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, to trade cryptocurrencies using its Aladdin asset management platform.
Fidelity, a rival asset management firm, recently launched the first European bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP).
What Are The Upcoming Trends In Crypto World
Avivah Litan, one of Gartner’s top analysts and co-author of the Predicts 2022 report, told ZDNet that cryptocurrencies will be used for retail payments within the next three to five years. In the next few years, we may expect to see a significant increase in the usage of cryptocurrencies as an investment vehicle, especially in the context of safeguarding investors from the consequences of growing inflation. It is, nevertheless, a very speculative and dangerous investment. Bitcoin was valued at $68,223 on November 10, 2021; at the time, it was trading for $31,187.
Despite this, there is no sign that investors or companies are reconsidering their support for bitcoin.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is a developing topic of interest for certain investors and enterprises.
Banks must become digital asset custodians to aid these firms, which is a global phenomenon, not just in the United States. Cryptocurrency now accounts for just 0.08 percent of all assets possessed, but some estimates anticipate that hedge funds will hold 7% of their assets in cryptocurrency over the next five years. “DeFi is attracting institutional funding,” Litan remarked.
Governments all across the world are becoming interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. According to Gartner, 83 countries have tested or adopted CBDCs, or Central Bank Digital Currencies, which account for 90% of global GDP. According to the Chinese government, which has prohibited miners from mining any sort of decentralized cryptocurrency in favor of developing its own, the “digital yuan,” the nation has distributed more than $5 billion in digital yuan to its residents as of June 2021.
According to Gartner, ransomware and successful cryptocurrency theft are predicted to fall by 30% by 2024 since hackers cannot move or spend their assets outside of blockchain networks. According to Chainalysis figures, a total of $14 billion in cryptocurrency-related crimes were perpetrated in 2021, a 78 percent increase over the previous year’s total of $7.8 billion. It is also rare to see so-called “rug pulls,” in which crypto firms seem to be legitimate, only to vanish with investors’ money. North Korean criminals stole over $400 million in digital assets from financial institutions and centralized exchanges in 2021.
