Asset managers dive into NFT
(Some) NFTs are (very) good investment ?
With crazy yields on the blue-chip collections, and a weekly trade volume of around $500M, it is not surprising that professional asset managers start diving into the space. By buying a number of NFTs and putting them into a fund they allow accredited investors to easily invest into NFTs without having to actually buy and store them.
The first one to create an NFT fund was an American crypto asset manager Bitwise Asset Management, and others, like Arca (also American), followed suit. It isn’t surprising if more asset managers – not only from crypto, but also from the traditional finance – will be creating their own NFT funds.
And yet, we were surprised to learn about NFT aspirations of Amundi, Europe’s biggest traditional asset management firm with almost $2 Tr of AUM (asset under management). In its recent report the Paris-based company noted its interest for the NFT space and hinted at a possibility of either buying NFTs directly, or investing in companies involved in the space.
?️ Amundi is the result of a merger between the asset management arms of two French banks: Credit Agricole and Société Generale. The first one is a notorious crypto hater, and the second one, despite the innovative image it tries to maintain, is also known for unbanking of crypto-related companies (like almost every other French bank btw).
Amundi itself has been a long-time crypto skeptic, and even in the light of its recent NFT awakening its CIO still says that their views on crypto have not evolved and that there’s “a lot of question marks around it”. If someone could tell Amundi that NFTs’ very nature is inseparable from the blockchain on which they live, and the blockchain is fuelled by its cryptocurrency.
In short, no crypto = no NFT.
As investors all over the world and getting increasingly interested in crypto and NFTs, traditional finance is speedily creating crypto products to match the demand. It’s important they don’t skip on education though ?
