As crypto currencies gain mainstream public acceptance, Wall St. has been quietly leading the charge.
Banking giant Morgan Stanley has estimated that hedge funds invested a massive $2 billion in cryptocurrencies this year.
According to Business Insider, the figure was released in a note entitled “Bitcoin Decoded” sent by Morgan Stanley to its clients this week.
The investment bank further detailed that more than 100 crypto-related hedge funds have sprung up over the past six years, however 84 of the funds launched in 2017.
The sharp growth trend coincides, unsurprisingly, with bitcoin’s over 20-times price increase this year, from around $800 in early January to a high of almost $20,000 last weekend, reports Coindesk.
2017 is ending with surging interest from institutional investors coupled with bitcoin futures products have also been launched in CME Group and CBOE, two of the largest commodity exchange platforms in the U.S. 2018 is looking more and more like a big year in the crypto space.