2021 was when Bitcoin became a trillion-dollar asset class and appears to have become a tipping point for institutional interest in cryptocurrencies. A recent survey carried out by Nataxis Investment Managers found that 28% of institutions had already invested in crypto, while nearly a third plan to increase their cryptocurrency allocations. The significance of this shift shouldn’t be underestimated. After all, banks have had several years to prepare for the possibility that crypto could be the next big asset class, but few of them chose to take the bet. Why? Because the regulatory concerns were simply too great when weighed against the overall value proposition of crypto. So, it’s telling that the trillion-dollar year for Bitcoin seems to have swung the pendulum in the other direction. The regulatory environment hasn’t changed significantly, but the opportunity is now much greater than in previous years. It means that institutions are prepared to address regulatory challenges head-on, which explains why some of the biggest financial firms are investing so heavily in crypto compliance. News recently emerged that blockchain investigations firm TRM Labs raised $60 million in Series B funding, with American Express, Visa, Citi, and PayPal all participating. It comes only months after rival player Mastercard acquired crypto analytics firm CipherTrace earlier this year. Visa also recently announced it was setting up an advisory div...
