Advisers on crypto: Takeaways from another survey

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When it comes to crypto adoption, we’ve repeatedly heard how much room there is to run. 

If you took a liquor shot every time someone said “early innings” at a crypto conference, you’d have trouble walking a straight line out of there. The need for “more education” is another phrase we hear ad nauseam.

But a recent CoinShares survey of financial advisers confirmed some of this, with specifics. We referenced one stat from it in yesterday’s edition (79% saying their role is shifting to risk management as clients invest in crypto on their own).

There are a few more worth pointing to. CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said he was perhaps most struck by a belief 62% of advisers hold: Recommending bitcoin doesn’t align with their obligation to act in their client’s best interest.

“This highlights a significant perception gap between regulatory approval, client demand and advisers’ fiduciary concerns,” he told me. 

Then there was the 55% who said recommending digital assets would harm their reputation with colleagues. This, Mognetti explained, “underscores the cultural and institutional barriers that still exist within traditional financial circles.”

It wasn’t long ago that Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argued Trump’s election win and a pro-crypto Congress “removes the last vestige of reputational risk from crypto.”

Not everyone feels that way apparently, even with 85% of the advisers that CoinShares surveyed saying their organization’s sentiment toward crypto (and how they’re advising clients) changed since the election.

Another fascinating finding: Gen Z and Millennial advisers are more likely to think recommending speculative assets doesn’t align with their fiduciary duty — and to say that “threats outpace innovation.”

While this younger demographic is often more open to digital assets, they also seem to face “stronger resistance from more established industry norms and colleagues,” Mognetti said.

Back to the education point: Though 71% say their firm is educating them on crypto, 84% are likely to pay for such education (mostly via online courses and conferences).

Also, 43% of advisers cite crypto platforms publishing biased information as a barrier. So maybe read Forward Guidance instead.

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