One of the largest asset management firms in the world might hop on the Bitcoin-linked investment wagon.
The Wellington Management Company, a Boston-based asset manager with $1 trillion in funds under management, said that its portfolio teams may include the digital asset class into their investment universe.
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The firm confirmed that the ability to trade Bitcoin futures is now already plugged into its systems, whilst its teams are looking into how it could include crypto assets into some portfolios.
But rather than buying wild-trading Cryptocurrencies itself, at least for now, Wellington will buy shares of companies that are embracing Blockchain , the decentralized technology that Bitcoin uses to keep a running record of transactions.
“Various Wellington teams are already positioning portfolios to take advantage of mining and blockchain implementations by, for example, investing in select chipmakers making components” the firm said. "Portfolio teams would only invest in cryptoassets if explicitly permitted by client guidelines."
Wellington Management invests in nearly all segments of the capital markets, including equity, fixed income, currency, commodity and alternatives markets across the world.
The move is a sign of how the falling price of digital coins didn’t hurt interest from institutional investors in the exposure to cryptocurrencies, despite warnings from regulators that they are unregulated and could bring serious risks.
Investor interest in trading cryptocurrencies prompted CME Group and Cboe to launch Bitcoin futures trading last year.
The independent, transparent Bitcoin benchmark that the world’s two largest derivatives exchanges offer helps further professionalize the digital asset class and finally bring it some regulatory cover. It also makes cryptocurrency trading a lot more palatable for the institutional players, as the regulated instrument allows them to hedge for Bitcoin volatility and avoid some of the hassles of investing in the coin directly.
