According to a new report by Skew, one of the industry’s leading providers of data analytics for Bitcoin and Ether derivatives, detailing transactions of the CME bitcoin futures exchange, revealed that there’s been a steady interest by institutional Bitcoin investors in October.
Skew, in its tweet, also detailed that these investors include “pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, mutual funds & portfolio/investment managers whose clients are predominantly institutional.”
Long positions held by institutional accounts at the CME have been rising again in October.
For reference, institutions include pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, mutual funds & portfolio/investment managers whose clients are predominantly institutional. pic.twitter.com/96N2XZwo9e
— skew (@skew_markets) October 20, 2019
Despite this great feat, bitcoin futures volume still trades below what it did last month.
Doubts that Pension Funds and Insurance Companies Take Center Stage
AS Exchange, a HongKong-based exchange argues that pension funds and insurance companies couldn’t trade the BTC futures. In its opinion, strict rules are preventing those institutions from investing in some traditional alternative assets. Therefore, assets as volatile as bitcoin are not an option for these organizations.
“Very doubt that pension funds and insurance companies are holders of BTC futures. The regulations are not that simple, preventing them from investing in even some traditional alternative assets, and here we talk about Bitcoin. Mostly they are HFs and alternative assets managers,” ‘AS Exchange’ noted in reply to Skew’s analysis.
Institutional Investors Also Eyeing Other Assets
It seems institutional investors aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket. According to ZyCrypto, citing the Grayscale Investments Q3 2019 report, institutional traders “purchased 2/3 of bitcoin and 1/3 of altcoins” during the said period.
