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S&P Dow Jones Indices launched a series of digital asset benchmarks, the S&P Digital Market Indices, that will measure the performance of digital assets listed on recognized open cryptocurrency exchanges. At launch, the index series will cover Bitcoin and Ethereum, and there will be Cryptocurrency MegaCap Index that measures the market cap-weighted performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Later this year other coins will be added. The indices use pricing data from Lukka, a crypto software and data provider, to determine the eligibility universe and pricing of individual constituents.

Morgan Stanley has told its financial advisors that the bank is launching access to three funds that enable ownership of bitcoin. Two of the funds on offer are from Galaxy Digital, while the third is a joint effort from asset manager FS Investments and bitcoin company NYDIG. Morgan Stanley considers it suitable only for people with "an aggressive risk tolerance" who have at least $2 million in assets held by the firm. Investment firms need at least $5 million at the bank to qualify for the new stakes.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) now has until April 29, 2021 to deliver an initial decision on the VanEck Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund filing (45 days after the March 15 submission's official publication on the SEC website on March 15). The SEC has to approve, decline or extend (up to 249 days) the review period for the Bitcoin ETF filing within that 45-day window, and the public also has a three-week period to submit comments on the SEC website. https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/cboebzx/2021/34-91326.pdf

"Many public companies are holding lots of bitcoin and are aligned on being bullish on bitcoin. Here are the different reasons for why some public companies are holding large amounts of bitcoin on their balance sheet, and a guess at who might be next."

According to CoinShares, the crypto-asset market attracted just $29 million fund inflows last week, a massive 97% drop from $1.09 billion inflows in the week before Christmas as institutional investors started profit-taking in 2021. Additionally, CoinShares mentioned that total crypto-assets under management now stand at around $34.4 billion as the recent price rally pushed the value of crypto investment products to a record high. Also, according to Bybt, Grayscale's crypto-asset funds have all witnessed outflows during the last seven days, suggesting some profit taking.

The Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC) will launch in the over-the-counter markets with a 0.49% management fee, versus the 2% that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) charges. Fidelity Digital Assets will provide custody services. Accredited investors face a $25,000 minimum to buy directly into the trust, and shares have a lock-up period of one year before they can be sold in the secondary market. In the absence of a Bitcoin ETF -- which U.S. regulators have yet to approve -- these are seen as one of the easiest and safest ways for investors to get Bitcoin exposure.

The bitcoin fund from Canada's 3iq Corp (QBTC), listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has reached over C$1 billion in market capitalization. https://3iq.ca/the-bitcoin-fund/

"What's the trade? You buy GBTC in the daily offering and short free-trading GBTC. Six months later, it all nets out and you are left with your profits. Of course, you take on a multitude of operational risks like securing term borrow and balance sheet risk if the spread blows out, but the pros know how to handle that. You can recycle your capital twice a year and on an unlevered basis, even after paying borrow fees, you're making north of 40% a year (FYI-I left out a few other steps and a bunch of legal wrinkles to overcome)."

Grayscale accumulated 16,244 Bitcoin worth more than $600 million on January 18, 18 times more than miners added to the supply that day. According to Bybt.com data, Grayscale's total crypto assets under management exceeds $27 billion when Bitcoin crossed $37,000. In Q4 2020 institutional investors accounted for 93% of capital inflows, or $3.0 billion. Grayscale is also slowly accumulating other digital assets including Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

Gemini Trust Company has more than $10 billion in total crypto under custody. Customers include BlockFi, CoinList, CI Global Asset Management, Eaglebrook Advisors, WealthSimple, and 3iQ Digital Asset Management.

Following the recent bitcoin price pullback, the latest Skew data now indicates that the premium rate on Grayscale's GBTC is under 10%. Institutional and accredited investors who placed an arbitrage trade on the premium (short the underlying bitcoin and buy GBTC) having to close out their positions (buyback bitcoin and sell GBTC) causing downwards pressure on the premium. Also, retail demand may be leveling off after the recent bitcoin dip, and competition is increasing (e.g., 3iq and Osprey's Bitcoin Trust).

Valkyrie Digital Assets filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 22 for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the second such filing in the last 30 days. At the end of December 2020, VanEck re-submitted an application to the SEC for a VanEck Bitcoin Trust ETF. Over the years the SEC has rejected bitcoin ETF proposals due to market integrity concerns. Now, with a new administration causing a changing of the guard at the SEC, it is widely hoped by crypto advocates that such an ETF will be approved in 2021.

Actively managed cryptocurrency hedge-funds underperformed Bitcoin during the largest digital asset's bull run last year, according to Crypto Fund Research. The funds' average rate of return was 166%, compared with a more than 300% increase in Bitcoin. While the funds as a whole significantly underperformed, a few breakout managers that made long bets and invested in decentralized-finance projects exceeded the average.

BlackRock is adding cash-settled Bitcoin futures as an eligible investment to three funds. It filed updated prospectuses with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that included cash-settled Bitcoin futures among the assets they can buy. The three funds are the Global Allocation Fund, Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio, Emerging Markets Flexible Dynamic Bond Portfolio.

The key barrier to wider participation in the crypto markets is lack of liquidity, according to a survey of 25 institutional investors by Aite Group and eToro. More specifically, market cap is a "very important" factor for 56% of respondents, with 28% more calling it "important." Also important were regulatory certainty, mature market infrastructure, and price accessibility, reliability and transparency. Respondents also expressed concerns over reputational risk and security issues.

Skybridge Capital COO Brett Messing said the company's Bitcoin Fund grew to $370 million, but said the emergence of a Bitcoin ETF could put it out of business. Skybridge Capital is an SEC registered investment advisory firm with over $7 billion in assets under management. It's run by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Grayscale continues with its massive Bitcoin (BTC) purchaing program. So far this week they have purchased 25,000 BTC which is nearly 7x of the amount of BTC mined this week and brings its total portfolio to 641,520 BTC, representing more than 3.4% of BTCs's circulating supply. Meanwhile, the premium on Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has come down from the December 22 high of 40.2% to 6.3% more recently. However, Grayscale hasn't bought any Ethereum since December 9 but continues to add some Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Stellar, Horizon and eZEC.

Grayscale Investments, via its "statutory trustee" Delaware Trust Company, filed for five digital asset trusts with Delaware's corporations registry: Chainlink, Basic Attention Token, Decentraland, Livepeer and Tezos.

Analysts at QCP Capital, a team of traders in Asia, see several signs of "institutional exhaustion." They did a timezone analysis which broke down BTC moves into Asia hours vs. US hours (12 hours each). Since March last year, the clear pattern has been relentless US buying while Asian whales and miners have been on the offer.

According to Coinshares inflows into crypto investment funds (like Grayscale, 3iQ, and 21Shares) last week reached $1.3 billion - a new weekly high. Grayscale is number with over $26 billion in assets under management, about $21.6 billion in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).