Michael Novogratz, the founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, believes that the lack of participation so far by institutional investors is causing a lackadaisical environment in the crypto space.
In an interview with CNBC, Novogratz stated that the market lacks enthusiasm as most of the activity is coming from retail buyers while large investors are withdrawing.
“Quite frankly, crypto is lackadaisical, I’d say. There’s a constant bid from retail. We’re seeing it through all the platforms, and there’s not a lot of institutional excitement right now and so the dog days of summer started early in crypto. Does it make me thrilled? That’s just the reality,”
Novogratz said.
Lack of Enthusiasm from Institutional Investors
Novogratz’s statement reinforces a May 31 report from CoinShares on weekly crypto asset flows, revealing that digital asset investment products saw outflows of $39 million from institutional investors for the sixth consecutive week, totaling $272 million.
Bitcoin remained the focus of the outflows, with a total of $11 million, while Ethereum lost $5.9 million in outflows. Algorand, Litecoin, and Uniswap funds also saw outflows of $8 million, $500,000, and $200,000, respectively.
The US led the flows, with Germany and Switzerland closely following behind. Collectively, 0.8% of assets under management left the crypto market last week.
Adoption Still on the Rise
Despite declining institutional adoption, Novogratz noted that “interesting” things are still happening in the crypto space. He pointed out the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies in Asia, primarily in Hong Kong and China.
The largest Chinese social media app, WeChat, recently allowed Bitcoin price quote indexes in its search queries. Despite the current crypto ban in the country, the platform’s 1.3 billion users can now access digital asset price quotes.
In addition, Hong Kong has approved the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap for listing to enable easy reviews and compliance from the exchanges, allowing retail crypto trading through regulated exchanges.
“There’s a couple of things that happened today which are pretty interesting. WeChat just enabled Bitcoin and crypto trading on the biggest single platform in the world. That’s a pretty big deal. Hong Kong is officially allowing crypto trading for retail customers through regulated exchanges for the first time, and so we’re seeing Asian adoption,
Novogratz added.
