BingX chief strategy officer Kevin Lee says wealthy “old money” investors are taking a longer-term approach to Bitcoin (BTC) than many crypto-native traders.
In a Token2049 fireside chat with Cointelegraph head of multimedia Ciaran Lyons, Lee said he deals with “a lot of old money” seeking alternative investments.
“They have stronger diamond hands than any of us,” Lee said.
He added that Bitcoin has grown large enough that wealthy investors are increasingly looking at it as a way to diversify a portfolio rather than expecting it to “go 10x in two weeks.”
Lee described wealthy investors as a largely untapped source of crypto capital, saying their buy-and-hold approach could make Bitcoin a portfolio diversifier for more investors. But data on family offices suggests that broader adoption remains limited.
Wealthy crypto investors lean long term, but adoption remains limited
Some affluent investors increasingly cite long-term appreciation and diversification as reasons for holding crypto.
Lee said Bitcoin’s growth has made it more viable as a portfolio diversifier, giving the example of an investor allocating 5% to gold and another 5% to Bitcoin rather than looking for rapid returns.
Recent data suggests affluent investors who already hold crypto are taking a longer-term view of the asset class.
On Monday, a CoinShares survey of 2,230 investors with at least $500,000 in investable assets found long-term appreciation and diversification were the leading reasons for investing in crypto, while short-term speculation ranked last. Bitcoin was held by 80% of digital asset investors surveyed.
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Still, crypto remains far from a standard allocation among wealthy families.
A JPMorgan report published in February, based on a survey of 333 single-family offices across 30 countries, found that 89% had no cryptocurrency exposure, while their average allocation to crypto and digital assets was just 0.4%. Just 17% of respondents viewed crypto and digital assets as a key investment theme.
