Buying in big! European and American investors are crazy about Bitcoin-related assets

Through third-party tools such as trust funds, overseas investors are frantically buying digital currency -related assets.
In the U.S. market, Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust had an average daily trading volume of nearly $1 billion in the first two weeks of this year, more than nine times the average daily trading volume in 2020. Assets under management of the Bitcoin Trust have surged to $23 billion from $17 billion at the end of December and $2 billion at the beginning of 2020.
In the European market, according to data from Deutsche Börse, in the first 11 days of January, the average daily trading volume of Bitcoin ETC (BTC E) reached 57 million euros, breaking the record of 15.5 million euros set in December last year.
Compared with the Deutsche Börse’s most traded ETF, iShares Global Clean Energy Ucits (INRG), BTCE’s trading volume is only €1 million less and far exceeds the exchange’s other 1,800 ETPs.
Stephan Kraus, head of Deutsche's exchange-traded funds division, said that BTCE's structure can reduce regulatory concerns and counterparty risks in past Bitcoin transactions and "increase the attractiveness of cryptocurrencies to institutional investors." BTCE does not require the use of digital wallets or "unregulated cryptocurrency platforms" when trading.
Institutional investors are also clearly buying in. Deutsche Boerse trading data shows that there have been several transactions worth more than 30,000 euros so far this year, so it is unlikely that they came from day traders or retail investors.
Bradley Duke, co-founder of ETC Group, the issuer of BTCE, believes that institutional investors buy BTCE mainly to hedge the risk of currency depreciation and mitigate the impact of asset depreciation caused by the new crown stimulus plan.
But regulators remain cautious about digital currency transactions.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde called on Wednesday for global regulation of cryptocurrencies to help combat their use in “totally reprehensible money laundering activities.”