These days more players on Wall Street are adopting bitcoin as a new vehicle that can potentially deliver amazing growth opportunities, and traditional investors are reaping the benefits. An index fund operated by Bitwise, for example, has delivered a 45% return in its first two months.
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Cryptocurrencies Deliver Performance
Bitwise Asset Management, which operates the cryptocurrency HOLD 10 Private Index Fund, has released today interesting statistics that show its performance since the launch of the fund late last fall. In its first two full months, the HOLD 10 delivered investors with a 45% return. In December’s bull market, bitcoin was up 39% compared with 78% for the HOLD 10, while January’s bear market saw BTC fall 27% compared with just 18% for the fund.
Its CEO, Hunter Horsley, told news.Bitcoin.com: “The fund has accepted several hundred investors since our launch, ranging from doctors and professors and engineers to family offices and billionaires. Because of regulations on private funds, we’re currently only able to serve accredited investors with this vehicle (similar to many ICOs such as Blockstack and Filecoin). But our goal is to be able to serve anyone.” To be considered an accredited investor in the US, an individual must have a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of their primary residence.
Especially important for diversified portfolio investors, the HOLD 10 Index has very low correlations to traditional asset classes. (Back-tested over the trailing 12 months: 10.8% correlation to the S&P500, -5.9% to the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index, and -1.6% to gold.) As of its February 1 re-balance, the fund holds BTC, ETH, BCH, XRP, DASH, LTC, XMR, EOS, XLM, and NEO.
From ETFs to Crypto
In a move that exemplifies how cryptocurrency is further becoming a mainstream financial asset class, Bitwise announced today that it hired the man who wrote the book on ETFs, Matt Hougan. Joining the crypto index firm now as vice president of R&D, he was previously CEO of Inside ETFs, and before that the CEO of ETF.com.
Spencer Bogart, partner at Blockchain Capital which is an investor in Bitwise, commented: “As crypto-assets come into the mainstream, investors increasingly want access to rules-based beta options. Matt’s expertise in indexing, exchange-traded products, and institutional research complements the team’s expertise in software, and will help Bitwise continue to be a best-in- class partner to investors.”
Is cryptocurrency becoming just another mainstream asset class on Wall Street? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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