When the institutional investors come

Institutional investors are the white whales of cryptocurrency. Ever so elusive, institutional investment in cryptocurrency has long been considered the most significant barrier between Bitcoin and a multi-trillion dollar market capitalization. In anticipation of their hopeful arrival, firms have raised more than a billion dollars in order to build infrastructure to serve them. And deal activity is picking up as the perfect storm appears to be brewing for investment in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a handful of major tailwinds both near and long-term to support this thesis:

• Unorthodox monetary policies increase risks of inflation and currency debasement
• The digitization of money increases people’s comfort with digital currencies and digital wallet technologies
• Demographic change increases potential investment cryptocurrencies
• Declining trust in institutions increases demand for new institutional arrangements
• Rising geopolitical tensions underscore the importance of politically neutral institutions