Elwood Asset Management Has Multiple Products to Bring Institutional Investors to Cryptocurrency

With the bear market being this never-ending string of unfortunate news, many crypto proponents have been hopeful that there will be ways to bring new revenue into the market. Experts and analysts have predicted an influx of institutional investors for quite a while, and it looks like Elwood Asset Management has some plans in mind to make that happen, according to Bloomberg on March 12^th.

Elwood, which is owned by Alan Howard, has expressed that the new products will be fully regulated and will have multiple crypto assets. Confirmed by CEO Bin Ren in a phone interview, Ren added that Elwood has joined up with Invesco Ltd. and already launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The ETF is tied to companies that are working to build up blockchain technology.

For the most part, institutional investors have stayed away from investing in cryptocurrency, due to the lack of regulation in the space and concerns about the potential for money laundering and manipulation in the market. Due to this reputation, blockchain technology is easier to get behind at this point, though there are already plans with Elwood to develop investments that involve digital assets, which may end up including exposure to major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Ren states that the only option for the exposure that institutions need is to purchase Bitcoin, but there’s plenty of reasons that they would refrain from or be unable to buy it. With an ETF, institutional investors are given a “highly liquid” product that is already regulated, while promoting exposure.

Cryptocurrency’s entire market began with the support of retail investors, which have pushed the industry to be valued at $130 billion now. However, with institutional interest, the asset class has already seen investments from Yale University and some Virginian pension plans, to name a few of the contributors.

Howard has made his own investments in cryptocurrency, starting in 2017. However, despite being a co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management, he does not have anything to do with Elwood’s daily operations.