A major effort is being made by one of the biggest asset managers in the world to introduce cryptocurrency to institutional investors. Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.N) has started holding cryptocurrency on behalf of its clients through a partnership with the digital asset marketplace Anchorage Digital.
The decision was made amid a difficult year for the cryptocurrency industry, with bitcoin, the largest digital asset in the world, down more than 50% since the beginning of 2022 as investors appeared uneasy about the world’s historically high inflation rates.
Diogo Mónica, president of Anchorage Digital, a cryptocurrency company that holds a national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said: “It’s the validation of this relentless drumbeat that [crypto] is here to stay.” “The fact that there is short-term volatility doesn’t really matter for the huge institutions because this is a process and technology with a very long time horizon.”
Apollo said its partnership with Anchorage dates back to the middle of last year, when the company first started looking into how to best protect its clients’ crypto assets. Apollo declined to disclose what kinds of crypto assets it currently holds. Apollo later took part in the Series D investment round for Anchorage, which was completed in December 2021.
Adam Eling, chief operating officer of Apollo’s digital assets division, said, “We look forward to cooperating with Anchorage for the protection of client assets as we explore innovative ways to deploy blockchain technology across Apollo’s company.”
Mónica claimed that negotiations about how Anchorage can eventually strengthen its partnership with Apollo are currently underway.
Christine Moy, a former executive at JPMorgan Chase who was hired by Apollo in April, will oversee the company’s digital asset strategy and play a crucial role in its investment choices in cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and Web3, a decentralized version of the internet.
