Wall Street Hedge Funds Rush to Cryptocurrencies, 90 Bitcoin-Like This Year Alone

Autonomous Next, a leading financial technology (fintech) research provider, disclosed to CNBC how 124 hedge funds are invested in crypto assets such as bitcoin. With over 2 billion USD under management, it appears, despite some well-documented Wall Street naysayers, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency is convincing money managers the time is right to invest.
Crypto Hedge Funds Now at 124 and Counting
Evelyn Cheng of CNBC reports that leading U.K.-based independent fintech research company, Autonomous Next, claims “more than 90 funds focused on digital assets like bitcoin have launched this year, bringing the total number of such ‘crypto-funds’ to 124.”

Her article details how “the largest share of the funds, 37 percent, used venture capitalist-type strategies and had about $1.1 billion in assets under management,” with digital assets and “statistical arbitrage on digital currencies” rounding out the rest.

Autonomous Next’s estimates that in total the “assets under management by crypto-funds now stands at $2.3 billion,” CNBC documents.
This might catch some readers off guard because, as CNBC explains, while “several leading Wall Street banking executives remain [publicly] skeptical about bitcoin, more seasoned money managers are moving into digital assets management.”

Even though crypto-related enthusiasm is relatively high on Wall Street, the “overall number of crypto-funds and their assets under management is also still minuscule compared to the record $3.15 trillion held by the hedge fund industry,” according to CNBC.