Crypto: A Faith Based Asset

When bitcoin emerged as the first digital currency in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator was dubbed a “prophet” of the new quasi-religion, with investors as his “disciples” and his White Paper a “sacred text”. In the early years, opposition was fierce, conversion rates slow, and many snubbed the ideological framework of a decentralised financial system. But those are bygone times. Today, there are over 19,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, 300 million “adherents”, more than 170 million Bitcoin wallets and we’ve seen the sector grow exponentially to become close to a $2 trillion dollar market.

Global Integration

What’s most compelling about this evolving ecosystem is that it is being embraced by legitimate multi-nationals and financial institutions within Australia and around the world. Late last year, the Commonwealth Bank announced a strategic partnership with Gemini to enable customers to buy, hold and sell crypto assets on their CommBank app. Similarly, megacorporations such as Microsoft, PayPal, Amazon and even Pizza Hut are accepting cryptocurrency as a legitimate method of payment for services.

On the government front, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has released its roadmap for a fully regulated crypto industry by 2025 and we can’t neglect the much-hyped crypto ETFs that listed on the ASX in October last year.

Locally we’ve seen Zerocap (an incoming Stropro panel member) team up with ANZ to launch the first Australian dollar backed stable coin.

The key takeaway: We are beginning to see a building momentum towards global integration of cryptocurrency into the economy.

Don’t get us wrong, Stropro, like most investors, holds a healthy level of scepticism into this industry. It is still hugely volatile and rife with scams (so is traditional finance though). But as non-believers dwindle and conversations surrounding cryptocurrency are being taken seriously, the next question is, how can I leverage this trillion dollar market to generate attractive returns?

In our opinion (and this is not financial advice), when a market exhibits significant asymmetry of information and high volatility, active management can be a prudent way to gain exposure to an asset class. Of course, you can dive headfirst into the depths of crypto theology, seeking to understand its participants, nuanced rules and behavioural idiosyncrasies… or you could find an established fund manager with the time, network and expertise to extract potentially significant alpha and do the job for you!

Our Latest Alternative Fund Manager to Join the Stropro Platform

Apollo Capital is an actively managed, multi-strategy crypto asset fund. Since its inception in 2018 its flagship fund, ‘The Apollo Capital fund’ has returned 410% (as of March 2022). And in June 2021, it was ranked 1st out of 9,046 funds on the Morningstar Funds Database for the best 1 year return. Investors should note that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Why Stropro arranged this fund

Growing interest from professional investors, financial institutions, central banks and governments around the world tells us that crypto is here to stay. We believe that access to this market is best gained through specialist fund managers’ active management. Apollo offers three key strategies which focus on the following:

Blockchains

Investments into blockchain platforms that operate as the core infrastructure for Web 3.0.

DeFi Assets

Investments in market leading and early stage decentralised finance platforms and their supporting tokens.

Markets Neutral

An investment into Apollo’s “Opportunities Fund”, which generates returns at low volatility through lending and yield farming.

We think this is a great opportunity for investors seeking access to an alternative asset class. For more information about this fund and how you can invest through the Stropro platform, register to our platform here or reach out to our team at teams@stropro.com

Written by Holly Brooks

This article has been prepared by Holly Brooks. Holly Brooks is an Analyst at Stropro Operations Pty Ltd (ABN 28 633 603 399) (Stropro). This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional and tailored financial advice. This article expresses the views of the author(s) at a point in time, which may change in the future with no obligation on Stropro or the author to publicly update these views. This article uses information from sources the author considers to be reliable but does not represent that such information is accurate or complete, or that it should be relied upon. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investments may rise and fall in value and returns cannot be guaranteed. Stropro makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information it provides. Stropro Operations Pty Ltd (ABN 28 633 603 399) is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR №1293257) of Stropro Compliance Pty Ltd (ABN 74 640 214 740, AFSL №533443).