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Mr Galvin added that DACM had been fielding interest from institutional and sophisticated investors, including family offices, looking for exposure to alternative assets.

We only deal with wholesale, sophisticated investors and the vast majority are coming from overseas, he said.

Theyre probably at 1 or 2 per cent allocation [...] maybe up to 5 per cent in some cases.

At the Financial Reviews first Crypto Summit in April last year, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci predicted bitcoin would hit $US500,000. At the time it was trading around $US50,000 but more than halved in the following six months.

On Monday, bitcoin was trading around $US44,000.

Self-managed superannuation funds have also piled into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with the latest Australian Tax Office data showing more than $950 million is allocated to the asset class.

Both Ms Wade and Mr Galvin cited the ongoing push by global institutions to establish exchange-traded cryptocurrency funds as a potential catalyst for inflows to the industry.

Several traditional wealth management giants, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark Invest, VanEck, JPMorgan and BetaShares, have all signalled to US regulators their desire to operate ETFs that track bitcoins price. The decision remains with US regulators.

Vimal Gor, who left fund manager Pendal in 2022 to join alternative fund manager Trovio, said when a bitcoin EFT was launched he expected institutional adoption to happen quickly.

Institutional adoption begets more institutional adoption. If you go back to pre-the Blackrock ETF filing, it was debatable whether it was even considered an asset class [...] theres no question whether its an asset class now, he said.

Im a strong believer that institutional adoption and retail adoption will happen a lot quicker when an ETF comes and I think that will turbocharge the whole space.

Speaking at an earlier session, Jeff Yew, the chief executive of crypto asset manager Monochrome, also noted the big names backing bitcoin ETFs, which would hold actual cryptocurrencies for investors, as a sign of institutional interest.

That shifted the entire taboo of talking about bitcoin in professional finance. The career risk of talking about bitcoin, or having that sort of conversation is now almost fully removed in the US, he said.

Jeff Yew, founder and CEO of Monochrome, is trying to get two new crypto ETFs approved in Australia.Michael Quelch

I think the ETF will unlock a lot of institutional wave investment into crypto that wouldnt otherwise touch it outside the regulatory structure.

Mr Yew, former chief executive of cryptocurrency exchange Binance Australia, has been trying to get two new crypto ETFs approved in Australia, lodging his intention with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the ASX.

While Mr Yew did not disclose if or when Monochromes proposed ETF would be likely to hit the market, he did say he was watching US developments. Mr Yew pointed to January 10, which marks final deadline for the US SEC to review ARKs ETF application, as a date he was watching closely.

January 10 is an update that a lot of people in this industry are laser-focused on. Were doing the same thing as well.

See the article here:
Bitcoin price: Traders tip bitcoin to hit $US100,000 - The Australian Financial Review