Media and financial information giant Thomson Reuters recently surveyed clients across its trading platforms and perhaps surprisingly found out that a large number of them are considering trading digital currencies this year. 20% of the finance firms said they have plans to get involved with crypto assets in 2018, with the majority of them weighing a push into the market within the next 6 months.
These findings represent a major shift, compared to the data of a similar survey in 2017. Sam Chadwick, a director of new content initiatives at Thomson Reuters, was astonished as virtually none of their customers had interest in virtual currencies a year ago. They instead focused on exploring blockchain technology and its implementation possibilities, such as data storage or smart contracts.
Mr. Chadwick did not name the clients that were surveyed but claimed they included large hedge funds, asset managers and even trading desks at major banks. Reuters began including Bitcoin data to its price feed last month and added information for Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin cash and Ripple since then.
Institutional interest in cryptocurrencies significantly increased at the end of 2017, following a meteoric rise of the Bitcoin price. The crypto market has suffered a huge dip since them with its value contracting from $800bln in December to approximately $400bln at press time. Nonetheless, institutional investment in digital currencies could the reason that instigates another surge of the market.
Such a positive response from the major players of the financial industry reflect a general optimism surrounding cryptocurrencies lately. Bitcoin and other coins have steadily climbed out of the slump they were in since the start of 2018 are now well on their way to previous heights.
The volatility of crypto markets is seen as a huge opportunity by many institutional traders and it seems it is only a matter of time since more of them jump into the crypto sphere. Recently reports have surfaced that banking giant Goldman Sachs has hired its first employee to work exclusively on cryptocurrencies as the bank considers establishing a bitcoin trading desk.
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