• Asset managers putting pressure on banks to adopt crypto so as to help them enter the space, Mercer says
  • Executive calls frictionless capital markets that operate seven days a week “incredible”

Cryptocurrencies will be the predominant assets traded in the decades ahead, LMAX Group CEO David Mercer said during an interview at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit last month.

LMAX Group is an independent operator of multiple institutional execution venues for foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading. The London-based company launched the first physical cryptocurrency exchange dedicated to serving only institutional clients in 2018.

Though access to crypto markets is not ideal right now for many asset managers, the executive noted, 70% of LMAX’s 200 biggest institutional customers said in a survey that these players will be the biggest traders of crypto assets three years from now.

“If the asset managers enter the space with just 5% of their portfolio, the market cap has to be $5trn because there’s $110 trillion of assets under management today,” he explained. “That’s just going to be the case, and probably crypto will grow into being 10% or 20% at that stage that it naturally overtakes commodities.”

Watch the full interview below, and watch all of the panel videos from DAS here. 

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  • Ben Strack is a Denver-based reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. Contact Ben via email at [email protected]