Cryptos have been on the market for a little over ten years. That is a negligibly short period compared to money or gold but a lot has happened since the first crypto hype in 2017. Crypto arrived at the Wall Street boys by 2020 at the latest. The US SEC approved the first Bitcoin ETF in 2021, clearing the way for institutional investors. Consequently, FIAT is dead; crypto is the future; crypto is cyberfinance. Some of the biggest names in the hedge-fund world are betting on crypto.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Wall Street veterans like Alan Howard, co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, or Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire who runs Tudor Investment Corp., are expanding their crypto trading.
Brevan Howard has a new crypto division, BH Digital, which manages over $250 million with 12 portfolio managers. Alan Howard has also invested in crypto, blockchain, and digital-token businesses. Paul Tudor Jones has been buying cryptocurrencies to protect himself against rising inflation. WSJ also points out that Hudson Bay Capital Management LP, a $15 billion New York hedge fund, has seen growing profits from trading cryptos.
In the cyberfinance era cryptos are the fifth asset class in addition to stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities, argues Robert Bogucki, co-head of global trading at Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd, an early crypto investor. “It’s big enough now.” Galaxy, launched by Michael Novogratz, a former senior executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Fortress Investment Group, now manages about $3 billion.
The embrace of crypto by more veteran hedge-fund traders is the latest sign of Wall Street’s warming to digital currencies. We have no doubt that Bitcoin, Ether et al will be the currencies of the cyberfinance era.
