Pet Rock Investments releases results of ground-breaking Crypto survey
Matt Visser
Paul Casarin
Survey results show that 72% of advisors are planning to allocate crypto in client accounts.
Pet Rock Investments, a leading South African provider of regulation-ready access to crypto markets, is excited to announce the release of the findings of The Pet Rock Investments 2022 Benchmark Survey of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Crypto Assets.
Financial advisors across South Africa answered a series of questions on crypto and their use in client portfolios. The survey focused on financial advisors, including wealth managers, financial consultants, investment advisors, asset managers, fund managers, financial planners and brokers.
Among the key findings:
• Clients are buying crypto en masse …. without asking their advisors: Up to two-thirds of clients (66%) are investing in crypto on their own.
• Advisors bought crypto for themselves: Over half of all advisors (63%) reported owning crypto assets in their personal portfolios. This is a good sign of adoption and understanding the risks (and rewards) associated with crypto first hand.
• Advisors are allocating to crypto but only for a few clients: The majority of advisors seem to be including crypto into their allocation mix, but it’s for a very small percentage of their clients.
• Regulation is no longer the top concern: The volatility of crypto tops the advisor concerns list (39%), followed by custody risks (30%), the perceived view that crypto is in a bubble (30%) and that advisors don't feel confident talking to clients about crypto (29%). Lack of regulation didn’t feature in the top issues.
• Crypto allocation is part of the future: Advisors see crypto being a key part of future planning in the next 12 months, with 72% of advisors planning to allocate crypto in client accounts.
“The survey shows it’s still early days for crypto and points to the state of the market and lack of regulations,” said Matt Visser, co-founder of Pet Rock Investments. “However, we can see a clear gap to fill between client expectations and their willingness to invest in crypto and advisors who need to support and service their clients. Based on this, we’ve launched a free Investor toolkit to assist with fund allocation and other key aspects to consider before investing.” The free investor toolkit is available on the website, petrockinvest.com.
“Financial advisors are looking for exposure to this asset class but are fundamentally concerned with its volatility and inherent technical risks, especially custody,” says Paul Casarin, Chief Executive Officer of Pet Rock Investments. “We see this as a major trend - asset preservation is key and understanding counterparty risk is paramount before allocating any crypto to an investment portfolio.”
In light of these findings, Pet Rock investments are offering zero management fees to all its South African crypto investment funds for a full year. Clients have until 31 October 2022 to take up this offer. “We have partnered with Fireblocks over the last year as part of our industrial strength custody solution. Our funds are set up in a way that’s well known and trusted by advisors. Clients receive full statements every month by independent fund administrators. We want to change the market's approach and advisors' attitudes towards crypto by providing a service that’s regulation-ready and more akin to asset management funds without the hassle of wallets, self-custody and the over-reliance on unregulated exchanges,” says Casarin.
The survey was conducted during August and September by an independent team from Catalyst Research, a long-standing market research company in South Africa. The questionnaire was sent to readership from FAnews, the leading magazine and online portal in the financial services and insurance industry.
Access the full survey results here.
