Aussies are increasingly turning to their advisers for answers on crypto investment, but a majority of advisers feel unequipped to help, a recent survey revealed.
According to a survey by Monochrome Asset Management, while 77 per cent of advisers had received queries about crypto-asset investments from their clients, only 11 per cent felt equipped to answer.
Monochrome recently partnered with Lonsec to deliver a masterclass covering the most asked questions on crypto assets such as how to access them, how to keep the assets safely and how to integrate into clients’ existing portfolios.
In a statement on Wednesday (9 February), the pair noted that interest in crypto investments is growing among both advisers and their clients.
“Crypto assets is increasingly becoming one of the most commonly raised topics we get from advisers,” said Lukasz de Pourbaix, chief investment officer of Lonsec Investment Solutions.
“We understand that there is a great need for education around the asset class and how advisers can utilise [them] in their client’s portfolios.”
The masterclass comes a week after Lonsec Research rating its first crypto-related fund, the BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF, with an “Investment Grade Index” rating.
Earlier this month, the corporate regulator reported that crypto-asset adoption continues to grow.
In its quarterly update, chair Joe Longo said ASIC is committed to raising awareness on new and continuing regulatory obligations, including the growth of crypto-asset adoption.
“The adoption of crypto-assets by Australians seeking better investment yields continued to grow during the quarter,” Mr Longo said.
“Investor protection lay at the core of our actions and advice in this space.
“We worked with domestic and international counterparts to consider regulatory responses in this fast-shifting landscape and took the first steps towards regulating crypto-assets which underlie exchange-traded products.”
Hard to get insurance for crypto advice
I imagine I am not able to leave links but consider looking at Fidelity’s view on Bitcoin as a superior form of money. KPMG Canada has added crypto to their balance sheet. Texas and various other states are looking at legislating to allow Bitcoin. 2022 is the year that Crypto or at least Bitcoin is going to get regulated worldwide and start to see mass adoption so good idea to get a handle on what is coming.
IMO, there are three really big roadblocks to Bitcoin (or the other coins) becoming mainstream:
1. Governments around the world control their economies through both fiscal and monetary policy. It is hard (impossible??) to imagine them ceding control of monetary policy to an unknown entity.
2. Currently cryptocurrencies around the world are environmentally disastrous. There was a report that said the in 2020 a single bitcoin transaction can be estimated to equal about 402 kg of CO2 emissions. This is comparable to two-thirds of the monthly emissions of an average Dutch household (611 kg CO2 per month). Until this is solved (and i am sure they will do it), it simply cannot be adopted worldwide.
3. It is too volatile. Every year, or after every boom/bust we hear that this is what is needed and it will now settle down and become more stable. Imagine being a shopkeeper accepting Bitcoin only to find out the next day the value of what you were paid was 10% less than you thought.
For anyone genuinely interested in this asset class, start with the first one: Bitcoin. The best person to explain this, in my opinion, is Andreas Antonopoulos. A world-renowned expert in Bitcoin and Blockchain, he understands it so well that I’m sure he could explain the concepts to a 5 year old. He has a channel on YouTube, and is all about the technology (by this I mean that he is not a crypto spruiker trying to tout the next ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Rather, he tends to avoid the fiat value of crypto assets in many of his talks).