Spot Bitcoin ETFs solved access, but custody, advisors and plumbing still lag, panelists say
Key takeaways
- Two and a half years in, panelists at CoinDesk's Consensus Miami conference agreed that part had worked.
- Christopher Russell, head of strategic planning and analysis at Calamos Investments, framed the access win in numbers.
- Out of $146 trillion in advisor-managed AUM, that $12.5 billion advisor allocation "seems like a big number, but it's a really small number," Russell said.
Two and a half years in, panelists at CoinDesk's Consensus Miami conference agreed that part had worked. However, they said custody concentration, modest advisor uptake and back-office plumbing all remain unresolved.
Christopher Russell, head of strategic planning and analysis at Calamos Investments, framed the access win in numbers. "The ETF solved one big problem, which was access," he said. The roughly dozen US spot bitcoin ETFs now hold around $107 billion in combined assets, with about $20 billion in institutional hedge funds, $12.5 billion allocated by registered investment advisors, and 60% sitting in direct retail accounts.
Out of $146 trillion in advisor-managed AUM, that $12.5 billion advisor allocation "seems like a big number, but it's a really small number," Russell said. He pointed to what he called the 1% problem: "They can take a 1% position in a 50-60 vol asset, but they don't want to spend 50% of their client meetings explaining why a 1% position went down 50%."