Institutional interest in Ethereum surges in 2020 Q1 amid the ongoing economic crisis

Recent Grayscale data shows a surge in institutional investment in Ethereum and Bitcoin. Grayscale’s Q1 2020 report highlighted the increasing interest in Ethereum and the massive amounts of money that the company has received from investors. It is noteworthy that there has been a record quarterly inflow into the Grayscale Ethereum Trust during this period.

Spencer Noon, the head of crypto investments at DTC Capital, said that Ethereum has reached a turning point with high-net-worth investors.

Institutional investors are buying ETH. The cat is officially out of the bag. From the latest Grayscale report: 

[Grayscale] Ethereum Trust saw $110M in Q1 inflows. This is more than all of its previous inflows combined for the past 2 years ($95.8M).

The last few weeks of this quarter witnessed inflows into Ethereum that actually surpassed Bitcoin. In the first quarter, investors poured a whopping $389 million into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust in addition to the $110 million invested in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust – totaling $498.9 million. 

Grayscale’s digital asset trusts are all completely backed by real cryptocurrency. Across all of its products (which also offer exposure to XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Stellar Lumens, Zcash and Horizen) Grayscale has reported a record inflow total of $503.7 million. The firm says investors are turning to its products despite the ongoing global economic crisis.

Investors are tactically using drawdowns to increase their exposure to the asset class, even in a ‘riskoff’ environment. Our institutional investor segment also continued to expand, a trend that could gain additional momentum as legacy financial institutions reinforce the investment thesis for the asset class.

Additionally, as existing investors allocate to multiple products, the investment community should monitor the expansion of increased demand for diversification within the asset class.