Rich Asians To Get One More Reason To Buy Crypto

Fusang Investment Office, an asset management firm serving Asian “family offices” is preparing to launch its own custodial service for cryptocurrencies in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

“Family offices” is the term used to describe the private investment companies set up to manage the wealth of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). The industry has recently been scrambling to find good options for secure storage of cryptocurrencies, as more and more of these individuals seek exposure to the new asset class.

According to Henry Chong, CEO of Fusang Investment Office, trusted third parties are needed in the cryptocurrency space to hold, audit, and insure crypto assets for wealthy clients.

“Digital assets are akin to bearer bonds, whereby whoever that is holding the security is presumed to be the owner and there is no registration of ownership information of the security. Hence, the way we keep digital assets secured is of paramount importance,” Chong told the South China Morning Post.

Called Fusang Vaults, the new service follows in the footsteps of Coinbase, the popular US-based fiat-to-crypto exchange and wallet service, and others who have already set up custodial solutions aimed at institutional investors.

As reported previously, an extensive over-the-counter (OTC) market has emerged to serve many of these big investors, who prefer to stay away from exchanges due to the possibility of adversely affecting market prices with their big orders. Instead, OTC desks now match orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars each day via chatting tools like Skype.

Also, as reported, almost 60% of surveyed HNWIs were showing interest in investing in cryptocurrency in the first quarter of this year. Interest depends on a region: the area showing most interest was Latin America, followed by Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan. Interest in cryptocurrencies seems to drop significantly in other regions, with Japan and North America showing the most interest in not holding any crypto.