Financial Giant State Street Sees Unwaning Crypto Demand From Institutional Investors

Investment management firm State Street says that institutional clients are not deterred from investing in crypto assets despite price declines. “There is a belief that the asset class is here to stay,” a State Street executive said.

State Street on Institutional Demand for Crypto

State Street, a leading investment management firm, sees unwaning institutional demand for cryptocurrency despite market sell-offs, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.

Irfan Ahmad, State Street Digital’s product lead for the Asia-Pacific region, said the banking giant’s institutional clients are still keen on crypto and its underlying technology. He was quoted as saying:

During the course of the June, July period where things were really hotting up in terms of activity, we saw institutional clients not necessarily double down, but they weren’t really deterred from placing strategic bets on the asset class itself.

“The takeaway from that is, I think, there is a belief that the asset class is here to stay,” the executive emphasized.

State Street (NYSE: STT) operates in more than 100 geographic markets globally and employs approximately 40,000 worldwide. The financial services giant had $38.2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.5 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.

The company’s digital arm, State Street Digital, provides solutions for a range of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, digital cash, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to its website.

Ahmad noted that a number of major investment firms, such as Goldman Sachs, have begun offering crypto products and are likely to make further moves into the crypto space. In April, Goldman Sachs offered its first bitcoin-backed loan.

The world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, launched a spot bitcoin private trust in August. “Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients,” the firm said.

The State Street executive further shared that institutional clients have inquired about launching crypto products, elaborating:

Certainly, our clients, they’ve been speaking to us more pragmatically about how they might be able to launch products, or what our capabilities may be in the future to help them support the launch of those products.

In July last year, State Street announced the expansion of its cryptocurrency service, citing soaring demand from traditional funds.

Crypto exchanges are also seeing rising demand from institutional investors. The CEO of Bitstamp said in August that his trading platform is seeing “massive crypto interest” from institutional clients. In June, Binance launched a new platform for VIP and institutional crypto investors to increase support for institutional clients.