Latin America’s biggest quant asset Manager to Launch Crypto Investment Fund

Giant Steps Capital, Latin America’s biggest quantitative asset manager has bought a small stake in Polvo Technologies, a software firm that develops machine-learning-based trading strategies for Bitcoin and other digital assets. The investment made by the fund manager comes just on the heels of their plan of launching a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-centered investment fund.

Flavio Terni, a founding partner at Giant Steps revealed that the asset manager is planning to utilize Polvo’s AI-driven trading techniques for its Bitcoin Futures investment fund. He explained,

“Crypto markets are highly inefficient, with a lot of volatility,” Terni said. “That’s something the trend-following strategies we already use in our other funds are able to capture and gain from it.”

In absence of a regulated Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in the US, institutions have turned to investment funds where a company buys a certain amount of Bitcoin and issue their share backed against the top cryptocurrency. Grayscale is the primary example of a Bitcoin-based investment fund and its growing success is evidence for growing institutional demands.

Institutions and Fund Managers Look Towards Investment Funds In Absence of Bitcoin ETF

Institutions have not just acknowledged the growing popularity of Bitcoin, but most of them now want to add it to their company sheets. The likes of MicroStrategy and Tesla are using it as an inflation hedge while other institutions and fund managers have started to invest in Grayscale and other investment funds in absence of a regulated exchange fund based on Bitcoin.

More than 15 publically traded companies have gained exposure to bitcoin in 2021 alone either via direct investment or via investment in companies such as Tesla and MicroStrategy who holds bitcoin in their treasury. The growing institutional demand is also reflected in the increasing number of Bitcoin mentions on different companies’ shareholder letters. More fortune 500 companies are expected to join in the bitcoin bandwagon soon and thus the demand for a Bitcoin ETF has grown significantly.