A new survey by accounting firm KPMG has found that 39% of institutional investors in Canada hold cryptocurrency assets.
The survey shows that holdings of crypto have increased significantly in Canada’s investment sector following a bear market in digital assets during 2022.
The institutional investors that have been allocating capital to cryptocurrencies include hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and venture capital firms.
At the end of 2023, nearly 40% of institutional investors in Canada held some crypto, up from 29% in 2021.
Notably, there has been increased interest in cryptocurrency derivatives products such as stablecoins that are pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar or gold bullion.
Despite the overall increase in crypto exposure, wealth managers pulled back on their investments in digital coins and tokens during 2023.
At the end of last year, only 14% of firms offering financial advice to wealthy clients claimed to hold cryptocurrencies, down from 42% in 2021 at the height of the previous crypto bull market.
Canadian securities regulators approved spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ahead of American regulators, and a growing number of crypto firms have relocated to Canada as U.S. regulators crackdown on the sector.
The KPMG survey comes as Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, trades at $64,000 U.S. per token, up 45% on the year.
