Despite a challenging first half of 2022 for all cryptocurrencies, a recent study found that Bitcoin is the most resilient and investor’s favourite among all.
HANetf published its ‘Digital Assets and Crypto Review’ for the first half of 2022. 75% of 75 fund managers surveyed across Europe said they planned to expand their exposure to cryptocurrency in the next 12 months.
Hector McNeil, co-chief executive officer and co-founder of HANetf, said: “Investors are increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies, despite the especially volatile start to this year”.
This year was tumultuous for cryptocurrencies, and the worst performance in H1 2022 came from Polygon with -82.61% returns, followed by Solana with a return of -81.41%.
Despite market volatility, Bitcoin saw returns of -76.85%, performing the best among its counterparts. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency continues to heap losses to investors, but it has “proved the most resilient”
Bitcoin is the most popular coin among investors, “Investors prefer the world’s oldest cryptocurrency in times of stress,” said Tome Bailey, head of ETF research and HANetf.
Out of 75 wealth managers, 57.90% expressed a positive view towards Bitcoin, whereas 27.60% expressed the same thoughts for Solana.
Data showed that Bitcoin continued positive inflows in the first half of 2022. Following fluctuations in the early months of 2022, by June, inflow data had turned positive again.
The study further found that 43% of wealth managers saw cryptocurrencies as closely related to the gold asset class. 33% saw that tech stocks are the closest asset class to cryptocurrencies.
However, 4% saw cryptocurrency as the standalone asset class.
“Cryptocurrencies are not an asset class. It would be dangerous for the ETF world to take up the cudgel and suddenly start trying to provide access”, remarked Mark Northway, Sparrows Capital’s investment manager, at a recent Funds Europe roundtable.
Over the next five years, 29% of wealth managers anticipated the UK would have the most accommodating regulatory environment around digital assets in Europe, Followed by Switzerland and Germany, 20% and 19%, respectively.
© 2022 funds europe
