German funds and asset managers are expanding their horizons for crypto investments as the country has more favorable laws for special funds. $ 500 billion asset manager Union Investment plans to add Bitcoin (BTC) to various mutual funds as part of a pilot program targeting its institutional clients.
The Frankfurt-based institute told Bloomberg on Monday that it plans to add BTC to a small number of mutual funds that will only be available to retail investors.
For each fund, exposure to Bitcoin is limited to a maximum of 2% of total assets. Portfolio manager Daniel Bathe said the new investment strategy is expected to start in the fourth quarter, although no set timeline has been specified.
Union Investment is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group, an institute with more than 800 cooperative banks. As of June 2021, Union Investment managed assets of US $ 507 billion, making it one of the largest asset managers in Germany.
Germany is fast becoming a hotbed for cryptocurrency investments, especially among institutional players. A new law came into effect on August 2 that allows institutional funds to hold cryptocurrencies and paves the way for greater acceptance of digital assets, including among German pension funds. Meanwhile, German stock broker S Broker recently announced a range of crypto-focused product offerings. Related: What the SEC Can Learn From the German Regulator At the retail level, Germans don’t do that well when it comes to introducing cryptocurrencies, according to a recent survey by financial comparison site Finder.
The survey of 42,000 people estimated that only 11% of Germans were exposed to digital assets. While it is superior to the US and UK, it lags far behind emerging markets and other European countries. Bitcoin comes back to attention when the first cryptocurrency rises to $ 52,000. The price has recovered to about 79% from its summer lows. The total market capitalization of Bitcoin is once again approaching $ 1 trillion.