Apollo, one of the world’s largest asset managers, launched a bitcoin custody service for institutional clients on Monday. The program is a partnership with Anchorage Digital, which has chosen to handle the technical portion of the service provided.
The announcement comes as bitcoin struggles to stay relevant after a 70% drop over the past 12 months, providing no cushion against inflation in fiat currencies around the world.
So this shows that even a bear market has not scare away investors, especially institutional investors. Moreover, Apollo’s entry reinforces that view after other giants like BlackRock and Fidelity bet on the industry.
Apollo begins offering Bitcoin custody services to institutional clients
While Bitcoin remains swayed by its most ardent users who believe the cryptocurrency will become a global monetary standard, institutions are also looking to get involved in a movement that often looks like the beginning of a religion.
However, such institutional investors need to avoid hacking and other incidents and require third-party services. This is where Apollo comes into play by offering Bitcoin custody services to its customers.
To that end, the $500 billion management company has partnered with Anchorage Digital. In short, Apollo will provide the exposure and Anchorage will take care of the technical part.
“Anchorage is pleased to announce that Apollo, a renowned alternative asset manager, has selected us as a qualified custodian. We are proud to support your entry into the cryptocurrency space with the highest levels of security and regulation.”
@Anchorage is pleased to announce that leading alternative asset manager @apolloglobal has selected us as a qualified custodian.
We are proud to support their entry into the cryptocurrency space with the highest level of security and regulation.
Read more ⬇️: https://t.co/XmJBUu28Jz pic.twitter.com/ITpuVqP1rI
— Anchorage Digital (@Anchorage) October 31, 2022
Later, Diogo Mónica, co-founder of Anchorage, also emphasized the hope that “this collaboration can set the standard for how institutions work with regulated Crypto asset banks.”
Finally, the initiative could represent a huge increase in the entry of major players, which could push the price of Bitcoin higher.
Institutional adoption is still in its infancy
Today, MicroStrategy is without a doubt the biggest example of institutional adoption of Bitcoin. In total, the company owns 0.619% of all bitcoins that will forever be in the market. There is a total of 130,000 BTC, which is equivalent to 14 billion Brazilian reals.
Next, other public companies emerged, including Mercado Livre with 150 bitcoins (16 million reais). However, ML is an exception, as the list consists mostly of companies in the industry, such as brokers and mining companies.
Listed companies with the most Bitcoin. Source: BuyBitcoinWorldwide.
As a result, more traditional companies are expected to be exposed to Bitcoin, an asset poised to become the next gold. Therefore, the services of management companies such as Apollo, BlackRock, Fidelity and others are betting on this demand.
In the end, the main consequence of this institutional adoption is an increase in the price of Bitcoin. However, it’s hard to predict how far this figure will go, but some believe it could reach $1 million per unit.
Source of information: compiled from LIVECOINS by 0x information.The copyright belongs to the author and may not be reproduced without permission