Unlike assets like commodities or private markets where institutions pioneer adoption, cryptocurrencies saw retail investors lead the charge. Institutions are only now slowly beginning to explore allocations, reversing the historical trend of top-down financial innovation.
While Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) make crypto accessible, they present a liquidity paradox. The underlying spot crypto markets are actually more liquid and trade 24/7 globally, whereas ETFs are confined to standard market hours—a crucial difference for active traders.
The predictable four-year crypto cycle isn't random. It's explained by two parallel forces: a macro trend tracking global M2 money supply fluctuations, and a micro, commodity-like pattern of supply shocks, speculative bubbles, and subsequent crashes.
Client interest in Bitcoin isn't monolithic. It falls into three primary buckets: those seeking an inflation hedge like "digital gold," those treating it as a high-risk, high-reward tech investment like venture capital, and those using its low correlation for portfolio diversification.