If you were in crypto in 2017, then you’re no doubt familiar with the “institutions are coming!” rallying cry that was shouted ad nauseum at every conference that year.
On Twitter, crypto celebs dropped alpha that they were “in talks” or had “sources” telling them that institutional money was flowing big time into Bitcoin and Ethereum. This went on and on.
But it wasn’t until MicroStrategy last year began allocating jaw-dropping amounts of money into Bitcoin that things changed. Then Tesla joined in. Then rumors began circulating that Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft were also about to make the plunge. (They haven’t… yet.)
Now, no matter your threshold for “institutional adoption” of crypto, I think it's safe to say that it's likely been crossed at this point. From public companies to hedge funds to small investment shops (these are the groups generally included in the umbrella of "institutions"), if a big name entity hasn’t outright invested, odds are it has at least commented on the asset class or said it’s “watching it closely.”
Bank of America, arguably one of the most conservative financial institutions in the world, released a recent report that said “the digital asset sector [is] too large to ignore.” It even said that the “ecosystem is so much more” than Bitcoin, waxing poetic on all things DeFi and NFTs.
There are other examples that go beyond just enthusiasm in a research report.
On September 30, Société Générale’s digital asset group, called FORGE, appeared on Maker’s governance forum. “We submit to you, on behalf of European investment firm Societe Generale-Forge, this MIP6 application for discussion and approval of Security Tokens refinancing,” it wrote.
In the proposal, the group outlines its “first experiment at the crossroads between regulated and open source initiatives.” The experiment involves tokenizing a covered bond, which are securitized debts issued by a bank, in this case Société Générale. I should also add, for context, that Société Générale is France’s third-largest investment bank with $1.78 trillion in assets under management.
FORGE has called these tokenized bonds “OFH” and explained that the bonds are “under French law” and “backed by home loans.”
Read the full article from here- https://decrypt.co/82973/institutions-say-they-want-defi?amp=1