Election swayed advisers, but crypto adoption has room to run

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After witnessing the post-election rise in crypto asset prices and ETF flows, here’s another data point backing up a sentiment shift: 56% of 430 surveyed financial advisers say they’re more likely to allocate to the space because of the November results. 

This number came from the Bitwise/VettaFi report we referenced a couple times this week as the companies teased findings before the formal release.

We mentioned, for example, that just 35% of advisers say they’re able to buy crypto for client accounts. Looking a bit deeper, 71% of these financial pros said at least some of their clients were investing in crypto on their own. 

“These held-away assets represent a major business opportunity for advisers seeking to help clients integrate crypto into a broader wealth plan,” the report notes. This sort of statement is nothing new, but rather drives the point home.

While nearly two-thirds report the inability to own crypto for clients, 22% allocated for clients in 2024 (twice the 11% in 2023). 

Of the advisers who haven’t yet invested, 19% plan to “definitely” or “probably” add exposure to the asset class this year. That’s more than double the percentage (8%) who said as much in last year’s report.

Other findings surprising to me:

• Though US spot bitcoin ETFs notched $36 billion of net inflows in their first year, flows into ETH products accelerated in December and filings for other spot crypto funds have proliferated, advisers thinking about jumping into crypto favor equity funds. Perhaps State Street Global Advisors’ mindset has legs, and we recently heard about how BLOK co-PM Dan Weiskopf is thinking about things.
• Secondly, despite the 56% swayed by the election, half the surveyed advisers still consider regulatory uncertainty the top hurdle for future crypto investments. That’s down from closer to two-thirds in previous years, but shows the wins of Trump and pro-crypto Congress members have not solved everything overnight.

The latter point confirms that amid the optimism of progress, there remains plenty of healthy skepticism — or at least patience — from those weighing their next move.

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