The study found that almost all institutions had increased their allocation to crypto and digital assets in the past year, with a quarter increasing their allocation by more than 100%.
Nickel Digital confirmed it was in conversations with major asset managers in the US, as well as, pension funds – none of whom are clients yet – helping them navigate the digital assets space.
According to the digital asset manager’s survey, conducted online in October, almost 90% of dedicated digital asset markets teams were set up by institutional investors and wealth managers in the past 12 months.
Last week at TradeTech Europe 2021 in London, Christoph Hock, head of multi-asset trading at Union Investment, announced that it would start trading native crypto from next year.
Yet, firms surveyed by Nickel Digital Asset Management, were bullish on long-term target allocations towards crypto/digital assets, with just over a third saying it should increase by between 5% and 10%, and 26% indicating between 3% and 5%.
Michael Hall, founding partner and CIO at Nickel Digital, was bullish about the prospects for the DeFi – or decentralised finance – space, which had already seen 10 times growth, he said, with $113 billion worth of contracts built on DeFi lending and trading protocols.
Almost 80% of firms surveyed by Nickel Digital in October highlighted security of assets as being one of their top three concerns.
Nickel Digital also highlighted the challenges entailed in setting up a trading desk for crypto and digital assets, which unlike equities, are traded 24/7 across multiple exchanges.