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October 04, 2018 at 10:29 AM
Ric Edelman is rolling the dice in the cryptocurrency space by investing in and becoming an advisor to Bitwise Asset Management, a leader in cryptocurrency index funds.
Bitwise announced Thursday that Edelman will become an advisor and investor in the company, joining other prominent asset management execs including former Barclays Global Investors’ CFO Alison Davis, former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, and current Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. CIO Anup Agarwal, among others.
“I’m thrilled to be an advisor to Bitwise and help further its mission to bring institutional-caliber crypto exposure to investors in the U.S. and around the globe,” said Edelman, founder and chairman of Edelman Financial Services, in a statement.
“There is a technological and financial revolution taking place right now with cryptocurrency that has far-reaching implications,” he said. “Every financial advisor needs to educate themselves about this space, and most should be considering an allocation for clients. I look forward to working with Bitwise to help make that a reality.”
The industry, Edelman continued, is “on the path to a cashless future, and the crypto-asset market is simply too big to ignore.”
The “smart contract technology embedded in crypto-assets like Ethereum has the potential to revolutionize huge portions of the financial industry,” he continued. “Financial advisors need to work right now to future-proof their portfolio against the technological changes taking place in the world today. Adding exposure to crypto-assets is part of that effort.”
Bitwise said that Edelman will help the firm in its efforts “to educate and support financial advisors looking to bring diversified exposure of crypto-assets to client portfolios.”
The news comes one day after Chris Dodds — a Charles Schwab director — joined the board of Coinbase.
A recent Bitwise survey of more than 450 advisors found that 83% had received questions from clients about crypto.
The advisors polled said that “education” and “regulatory concerns” were the two primary barriers to them making an allocation to crypto-assets for their clients.
