“We’re seeing some academic institutions getting involved on a limited basis for strategic reasons. I can’t say the names of [the academic institutions] because that’s attorney-client but we have people mostly on the east coast that have begun doing investments in this space on a fairly modest basis,” says Capital Fund Law Group Founder John Lawer in an interview with Business Insider.
Once regulatory issues are resolved, these institutions will invest more in the crypto market, reiterates Lore, adding that a few university endowment funds have already begun to do so, albeit in a limited manner. “We see academia as a tie between these somewhat young and enthusiastic fund managers and capital raising,” Lore adds.
Cryptocurrency hedge fund Blocktower Founder Ari Paul says, “Institutional money started trickling into cryptocurrency in mid-2017, but it’s been slower than many, including myself, expected. That doesn’t mean it’s not coming. There are a lot of pieces that need to come together, one big piece being third party custody. Custody isn’t binary. It’s not like Coinbase custody will launch and suddenly every pension will throw $100 million into BTC. It takes time for custody solutions to gain trustworthiness. But I think we’ll have solid third party custody by September of this year.”
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