Wealthy Investors Boost Crypto Holdings as Advisers Hesitate, Survey Reveals

A new survey from CoinShares makes one thing pretty clear: rich people want more crypto, and their financial advisers are basically dragging their feet. The gap between investor appetite and adviser comfort is widening fast — and it’s showing up across seven major economies.

The CoinShares survey polled 2,230 investors, each with at least $500,000 in investable assets, spread across the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. Crypto ownership among that group ranges from 54% in Sweden up to roughly 70% in the US, UK, Germany, and Switzerland. And it’s not like these holders are staying put — over 85% of existing crypto investors across those countries said they plan to increase their exposure. That’s a big number. Roughly four in ten respondents who work with financial advisers in Switzerland, France, the US, and Germany said their advisers are too cautious on digital assets. So the money wants in. The advisers, not so much.

Not everyone agrees on what “normal” crypto allocation even looks like right now.

Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, pushed back on the survey’s finding of a 10% average crypto allocation. He said current allocations in practice tend to run between 2% and 5%. But he’s not arguing for less — he actually thinks investors should be somewhere between 10% and 40%, adjusted for individual risk tolerance. So his issue isn’t with the direction, it’s with the number feeling off from what he sees on the ground.

OKX Hits $25 Billion Valuation After New Funding Round

OKX just closed new capital at a $25 billion valuation. The exchange had already pulled in a $200 million investment round led by Intercontinental Exchange back in March. The latest extension brought in Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple, and stablecoin issuer Circle. How much money changed hands this time? Unclear. OKX didn’t disclose the amount.

But OKX isn’t just raising money. It’s moving into traditional financial markets in a pretty direct way. A joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a tokenized stock trading platform. The platform is waiting on approval under the agency’s innovation exemption. No timeline on that yet.

The crypto-to-traditional-finance pipeline has been building for a while now. Firms that once operated purely in digital assets are increasingly filing with regulators, partnering with legacy financial institutions, and chasing the kind of credibility that comes with SEC filings and stock exchange tie-ups. OKX’s move fits that pattern squarely.

Read also: Thailand SEC Restricts First Crypto ETFs to Bitcoin and Ether Only

Strategy Bets Big on Stock Buybacks, Slows Bitcoin Buying

Strategy made a notable pivot last week. The company spent $176.3 million buying back 1.77 million shares of its STRC preferred stock. That dwarfs the $28.7 million it put toward acquiring 334 Bitcoin in the same period. For a company that built its entire identity around Bitcoin accumulation, that’s a real shift.

Bitcoin holdings at Strategy grew by just 0.2% in the third quarter. That’s not nothing, but it’s pretty much a rounding error compared to the pace the company kept earlier. The STRC shares had fallen hard at some point and have since climbed back near their par value — so buying them back now, at or near par, makes a certain kind of sense from a capital allocation standpoint.

Strategy also filed a proxy seeking shareholder approval to pay daily dividends on STRC and other stocks. The vote is set for October 28. If shareholders say yes, daily dividends on STRC would start in November. The idea seems to be about improving liquidity and maybe putting a floor under the share price, though no one’s guaranteeing that.

Bitcoin’s Macro Headwinds Haven’t Gone Away

Bitcoin had its best third quarter since 2017, rising 43%. But the market since then has been choppy. Treasury yields staying above 5% give investors a real alternative — one that doesn’t gap down 10% on a bad weekend. That’s a genuine headwind.

Vanessa Grellet of Arche Capital sees it differently. Per Grellet, Bitcoin’s appeal as a hedge against currency debasement doesn’t go away just because rates are high. The argument is that fiat purchasing power keeps eroding regardless of what the Fed does, and Bitcoin holds its value case independent of the rate environment.

See also: Anthropics OSS Scanner Attracts Major Crypto Players Amid Rising Security Threats

September’s labor data came in weak — only 29,000 jobs added. That shifted rate expectations. The CME FedWatch tool moved to show a lower probability of a rate hike in October. New York Fed President John Williams also signaled no immediate push for further increases. So the macro picture is murky, maybe a bit friendlier to risk assets than it looked a month ago, but far from settled.

Strategy’s shareholder vote on October 28 is probably the next concrete catalyst to watch.

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