New York-based crypto venture firm Grayscale Investments has revealed that it raised a record amount of $330 Million of funds through the first three quarters of 2018, despite the bearish nature of the cryptocurrency market.
It is already over ten months into the bear crypto market which has seen the prices of cryptocurrencies continuously decline to about 70% of their all-time highs. This trend has left crypto experts and analysts confused about whether the price of Bitcoin has bottomed or could keep declining in the coming months.
Record Fiat Inflows
Grayscale, which happens to be the cryptocurrency investment firm that launched the popular Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC), published this in its recent Q3 Digital Asset Investment Report. The company added that it experienced about $81.1 million of inflows during the just-concluded quarter. This figure is a 33% increase on the figure of the second quarter. In total, Grayscale has been able to raise $330 million in 2018 alone- that is a remarkable 1,200% increase from the $25.4 million it raised through September 2017.
The Company noted that the constantly decreasing price of Bitcoin in the entire year did not discourage its existing investors and clients from investing more funds into the company. During a recent interview, the managing director of Grayscale Investment, Michael Sonnenschein, stated that “Asset inflows are really strong despite these price declines.” He further explained;
“Investors are taking the pullback as an opportunity to increase their exposure,” he added. “The price has not slowed down the pace of investments — it’s actually caused us to broaden our relationships.”
GBTC Attracts Retail Buy
Although Grayscale has notably expanded its collection of products in 2018 through the introduction of cryptocurrency index funds and single-asset investment funds, Bitcoin Investment Trust still takes a significant part of Grayscale’s inflows. Presently, about 73% of the inflows have been focused on GBTC. GBTC has its shares backed by Bitcoin.
Remarkably, Grayscale revealed that institutional investors account 70% of the third quarter inflows. This further confirms the trend that suggests that more institutions are beginning to delve into the cryptocurrency market.