60% of respondents are convinced Ethereum will a better investment in 2023.
Bitcoin is also seen as one with huge potential, while other coins attracting institutional investors are Polkadot, Cardano and XRP.
Speculative interest and exposure to distributed ledger technology are main reasons for increased interest.
Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with its market worth nearly $190 billion.
While it remains behind Bitcoin, whose market cap as of 27 January 2023 stood at over $482 billion, institutional investors are reportedly more bullish on the cryptocurrency’s prospects in 2023 than was the case going into the third quarter last year.
60% of institutional investors are bullish on Ethereum
According to the latest survey results published by digital assets manager CoinShares, bullish sentiment around the top altcoin by institutional investors has increased by 20% since the last survey in October 2022.
The asset manager’s report states that 60% of respondents from major wealth majors, family offices, hedge funds and financial advisors, believe Ethereum has a better growth outlook in 2023. In October, when CoinShares published its previous Digital Asset Quarterly Fund Manager Survey, 40% of respondents had indicated a bullish outlook for the leading smart contracts platform.
Comparatively, 30% of the survey participants were bullish on Bitcoin – down from 40% in the previous report. But while most of the big money is betting on ETH, CoinShares highlighted that a growing number of investors are invested in both assets.
Other digital assets that institutional investors are eyeing in 2023 are Polkadot, Cardano, XRP, Solana and Polygon.
Why are institutional investors adding crypto to portfolios?
According to CoinShares, the main reasons behind increased interest and investment in digital assets are speculation and the need to gain exposure to opportunities across the distributed ledger technology ecosystem.
Notably, more clients saw the recent crypto crash (after the collapse of FTX) as an opportunity, with a growing number directing fund managers to add crypto to their positions. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular.
Digital assets are still the playground for hedge funds, but weighting in portfolios has increased from ATL 0.7% to represent 1.1% of portfolios. pic.twitter.com/cCCogB3l1j
— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) January 26, 2023
But the asset manager says crypto’s increased correlation to equities might be the reason fewer investors cite diversification as a key factor.
“When asked what reasons prevented investors from investing in digital assets, it is interesting to note that reputational risk saw a significant decline while regulation is still an important consideration,” CoinShares noted.
