In the words of Yang He, the CEO of Aspen Digital, “Over the last 18 months, we have seen a huge increase of institutional investor interest in digital assets.”
A study published by KPMG China and Aspen Digital revealed that a majority of Singapore and Hong Kong elites are increasingly investing in digital assets.
The firms surveyed high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) and family offices (FO) based in Singapore and Hong Kong whose assets lie between $10M and $500M.
As per their report, 58% of these investors already own crypto holdings, with 34% of the parties claiming that they plan to invest in crypto in the future. This brings the percentage of FO and HNWI who are interested in the crypto ecosystem to 92%.
Their report disclosed that all the respondents who invest in digital assets own Bitcoin. The percentage of crypto investors that hold Ethereum is slightly less at 87%.
Moreover, 60% of these investors already own NFTs and stablecoins, with portfolios of 47% containing DeFi tokens.
In the past months, Singapore and Hong Kong have taken steps to cement their standings as crypto hubs. KGMP China’s Paul McSheaffrey noted,
“Many jurisdictions are starting to license exchanges and brokers that deal in digital assets, providing more regulatory certainty and therefore comfort to institutional investors.”
Last month, DBS Bank launched an exchange to allow 100K of its Singapore-based clients to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong SFC recently announced its plans to permit crypto platforms to directly offer their services to retail investors.
