An Australian investment management firm worth $ 70 billion has entered bitcoin, citing cryptocurrency as being better than gold.
Pendal Group, a global investment management business, has moved into the bitcoin market, citing increasing interest in the digital currency from its high net worth clients.
“We have been positioning gold for our clients for many years now. Now we’re doing it with bitcoin, ”said one of the company’s executives.
Pendal Group’s head of bond, income and defensive strategies, Vimal Gor, believes bitcoin is no longer for the “tinfoil hat brigade” and government bonds could soon be a dead asset class. The company has begun investing in bitcoin through futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Gor added: “all the big hit in the hedge fund world is coming out to approve bitcoin now; it enters the mainstream realm. ”
Earlier this year, MicroStrategy, the largest publicly-traded independent business intelligence company, became one of the first of its scale to invest in bitcoin as a hedging tool, allocating as much as $ 450 million. The move was followed by Jack Dorsey Square, giving BTC $ 50 million.