San Francisco and Singapore-based hedge fund Circuit Capital is claiming that bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption is growing, and that the institutional presence in the digital asset arena is stronger than ever.
The Price Isn’t So Hot
At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency space is undergoing a massive price slump. Bitcoin, for example, is at its lowest point in over a year, and is trading for about $5,500.
Some analysts are blaming the losses on the bitcoin cash fork scheduled to take place today November 15, 2018. Marcus Swanepoel – co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading wallet Luno – recently stated:
This drop in the price is more than likely due to the hard fork scheduled by bitcoin cash. The bitcoin cash blockchain has been undergoing scheduled hard forks every six months to upgrade and improve the protocol. In most cases, these hard forks are uncontested with the whole community supporting them. In this case, however, consensus couldn’t be reached with two factions emerging, and proposing different solutions for the upgrade.
Don’t Let Numbers Fool You
Circuit Capital isn’t letting this news get the best of its research team. Partner Eugene Ng claims that people are concentrating too much on the prices of bitcoin and its crypto-cousins, but that behind closed doors, several institutional traders have become involved, and mainstream adoption is growing like nobody’s business.
Set to go live in the first quarter of 2019, Circuit has built a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency index that measures the adoption rates of blockchain technology amongst major corporations and businesses, and according to ten specific data points – i.e. the number of active crypto wallets, transaction volumes and web searchers for Bitcoin and related terms – the index is suggesting that crypto and blockchain adoption is spiking fast.
Good Things in the Coming Months
In a recent blog post, Ng mentioned that some of the other driving forces behind Bitcoin adoption are fund redemptions, a lagging retail presence, funds buying not by initial coin offerings (ICOs) but by equity, smart money shorting and positive news trends.
He further explains:
The most compelling market narrative for the next bullish cycle is that institutions will be the main catalyst driving the market. For these traditional entities to gain direct exposure to crypto, they must be able to trade, settle and store assets in an institutional-grade environment. I am excited for 2019 because the foundations for a marketplace will be laid. The buildout of this infrastructure will grow alongside clarity in regulations and regulated investment product offerings that will bring massive inflows of capital.
Will Bitcoin adoption continue to grow, or can we kiss goodbye to everyone’s favorite cryptocurrency? Post your comments below.
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