As the corporate regulator has given approval for crypto products, the funds management industry should consider how blockchain and digital assets could be used in the broader market.
When asked if there was a role for digital assets at the Calastone Connect Forum, Sam Hallinan, Schroders Australia chief executive, said he was “frustrated” with the hype around cryptocurrency.
“The hype predominately centres around crypto primarily because of the volume ascribed to tracking the value of crypto and linked to that, the volatility of those valuations,” Hallinan said.
“I get frustrated with that hype because it distracts everyone from things that really matter, as it pertains to the underpinnings of crypto which is blockchain and digital currencies.”
However, Hallinan said blockchain and digital currency itself was not overhyped as it was here to stay and was a “game changer” for the potential it had to affect everyday life.
“Yet the volume of editorial media and discussions revolve around crypto which I find disappointing,” Hallinan said.
“Because I don’t get how Ethereum can go up six times in less than 12 months and on what basis if it’s just not on pure speculation.”
“Every minute we spent talking about crypto is a lost minute talking about how we can try and change the world leveraging blockchain and digital currencies.”
Hallinan said the technology itself would be “massive”, from an asset management perspective.
“If we want to access or want to provide the retail investor with an experience that is fundamentally different than the one they’ve experienced today, we have to connect them closer to the investing process, to the investments themselves,” Hallinan said.
Recently, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had introduced a ‘crypto-asset’ category in the licensing application for responsible entities and funds.
Monochrome had already launched a Bitcoin fund, with BetaShares, VanEck and ETF Securities expected to launch its own products in the near future.
However, BetaShares and ETF Securities had also already launched funds that focused on technologies that serviced the blockchain and digital currency industries, with the former having broken records on its first day of trading.
