Betterment Wants to Add Crypto With 'Guided Wrapper'

“A lot of what we do, you know, depends on, for example, tax-loss harvesting and things that can take advantage of that volatility,” said Levy. Such sales may not align with investors who want to hold onto their crypto assets.

The “crypto with a guided wrapper” idea that Levy suggested “may manifest itself more through a lens of a long-term buy-and-hold [approach … an] asset as a smaller portion of a portfolio rather than as sort of a trading opportunity short term,” said Levy.

She also spoke about the gamification of the stock market as OK for investors who have disposable income they can afford to lose, but even those day traders are spending only about 30% of their dollars in those activities and 70% on long-term solutions, largely in ETFs and some in mutual funds, Levy said, citing Betterment research. “That’s really where we play, which is, you know, explaining to investors and helping them along the journey of a diversified kind of long-term outlook.”

The approach is working for Betterment. It reported a record-breaking first quarter, with assets totaling $29 billion, almost 50% higher than a year ago, reflecting gains in all three business units — retail, retirement and advisors — over the past 12 months. It added 56,000 clients on a net basis in the first quarter and is adding another 17,000 through its acquisition of Wealthsimple’s U.S. book of business.