Survey: 40% of institutional crypto investors intend to buy a lot more

A new survey suggests that hedge fund executives, wealth managers and institutional investors already holding crypto assets intend to increase their holdings.

The survey, conducted by London-based crypto fund Nickel Digital Asset Management, revealed that 82% of the 100 investors and wealth managers polled expect to increase their exposure to digital assets between now and 2023.

The research, conducted online in May and June and shared with Cointelegraph, surveyed 50 wealth managers and 50 institutional investors with prior exposure to crypto assets spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Four out of 10, or 40%, stated that they will “dramatically increase their holdings,” with just 7% stating that they intend to reduce their exposure, and only 1% planning to sell their entire holdings.

However, Nickel did state that in most cases, institutional investors with crypto holdings have very low levels of exposure, as “many have just been testing to market to see how it works.”

The survey revealed that the primary reason given for investing more in digital assets is the long-term capital growth prospects, according to 58% of the respondents. Even with the massive market slump, Bitcoin (BTC) has still made 18% so far this year, and Ether (ETH) is up a whopping 215% since Jan. 1.

Around 38% of those surveyed claimed that having some exposure to crypto assets gave them more confidence in the asset class, while 37% cited more leading corporates and fund managers investing in crypto assets as a reason to invest further.

Related: 1 in 5 investors at firms that don't trade in crypto say they are 'likely' to in future

Anatoly Crachilov, co-founder and CEO of Nickel Digital, commented that confidence in the asset class is increasing, and he expects the trend to continue, adding:

“Our analysis at the start of June this year revealed that 19 listed companies with a market cap of over $1 trillion had around $6.5 billion invested in Bitcoin, having originally spent $4.3 billion buying the cryptocurrency.”

As reported by Cointelegraph last month, a survey conducted by U.K. investment firm AJ Bell’s revealed that more people bought crypto assets than stock-related savings products over the past year.

A Mastercard survey in May revealed that four in 10 people plan to start using cryptocurrency for payments within the next year.