Institutions Sound the Bitcoin Investment Horn! Stone Ridge Announces Purchase of Ten Thousand Bitcoins as Asset Reserve

Bitcoin has seen a series of good news recently, with asset management firm Stone Ridge confirming in its latest announcement that it has invested ten thousand bitcoins, following the investment announcements by MicroStrategy and Square, a payment company owned by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The custody of these bitcoins will be handled by its subsidiary NYDIG.

Institutional Horn Blows "Invest in Bitcoin"

Stone Ridge, a $15 billion asset management institution with over $1 billion in assets under management, announced last Friday that its subsidiary, New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), has completed a $50 million financing round led by Fintech Collective. Participants include Bessemer Ventures and Ribbit Capital, bringing the total financing amount to $100 million.

Similar to MicroStrategy and Square's strategies, the announcement stated that Stone Ridge's investment of 10,000 bitcoins is part of its asset reserve strategy. NYDIG CEO Robert Gutmann stated:

We have achieved becoming the largest institution with bitcoin as a reserve asset, and we are proud of it. Not only has NYDIG's position been elevated, but we also see a rapid growth in demand from various companies for reserve assets and investment solutions.

Furthermore, Gutmann expressed concerns about the global economy, noting that while the unemployment rate has risen, the market has unexpectedly remained stable, which will ultimately lead to a collapse. He also pointed out that since March, the number of institutional investors has sharply increased, and the current economic situation has caused many to reconsider their investment portfolios.

Bitcoin Adoption Takes Another Step

In addition to the adoption by the aforementioned institutions, according to bitcointreasuries data, there are 9 publicly traded companies betting on Bitcoin. The main difference is that, aside from MicroStrategy and Square, the other institutional businesses are primarily focused on digital assets. The list is as follows:

The announcement of MicroStrategy and Square investing in Bitcoin is a very positive signal for other institutions considering adopting a similar strategy, especially given the compliance of Stone Ridge. Ben Lawsky, the regulatory head of asset management at Stone Ridge, formerly served as the New York State Superintendent of Financial Services and was the driving force behind the regulatory license "BitLicense," which was awarded to NYDIG in 2018.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor also retweeted this news on Twitter, believing that as banks, asset management institutions, insurance companies, and others begin to focus on Bitcoin, they will need custodial institutions like NYDIG to assist them.

Furthermore, the 10,000 bitcoins held by NYDIG are worth approximately $115 million, but this is just a part of it. It was previously reported that former Ripple executive Chris Larsen transferred his $115 million worth of Ripple at the end of September, which actually went to NYDIG.

However, to date, the high-profile Bitcoin investments by MicroStrategy, Square, and Stone Ridge have not significantly boosted the price of Bitcoin. Especially after Stone Ridge announced its $115 million purchase of Bitcoin, the market fell instead of rising, with Bitcoin dropping by 0.69% in the past 24 hours, with a price of $11,387 at the time of writing.