Original source: Sygnum survey
Compiled by: Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Translator: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
Editors note: As the crypto center in recent years, perhaps due to the painful experience of relevant investment institutions in Singapore in the previous FTX bankruptcy incident, the Singaporean authorities have always maintained a friendly yet cautious attitude towards crypto regulation.
Despite this, the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies in Singapore is still gradually increasing. More and more institutional and individual investors are turning their attention to cryptocurrencies outside the traditional financial field. After Trump won the US presidential election, a series of potential measures such as the strategic reserve of Bitcoin have also laid a good foundation for the development of the cryptocurrency market. Now and in the near future, when the process of economic globalization and the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency are accelerating, Singapore may become the crypto hot money gathering place in 2025.
The following is a financial survey recently released by the well-known asset management group Sygnum, compiled and edited by Odaily Planet Daily, and some content has been deleted and modified.
Singapore Investor Status Survey: 57% of Institutional Investors Plan to Increase Long-term Holdings
Recently, Sygnum, a global digital asset banking group, announced the results of its annual Future of Finance Survey. The survey measures and analyzes the core interests, market sentiment and trading behavior of institutional and professional investors active in the cryptocurrency market. The survey subjects include more than 400 respondents with an average of more than 10 years of investment experience, including Sygnums institutional clients, investors and diversified investment professionals from banks, hedge funds, multi-family and single-family offices, DLT foundations, funds and asset managers. A total of 121 local respondents in Singapore participated in the survey.
Gerald Goh, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum Asia Pacific, said: 2024 is full of positive new developments and numerous important moments for the cryptocurrency and broader digital asset ecosystem. The most important of these may be the launch of a Bitcoin spot ETF following approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - which has greatly accelerated the adoption of digital assets by institutional investors.
The survey shows that investors in Singapore are highly enthusiastic about crypto assets: 57% of investors plan to increase their long-term allocation to crypto assets, higher than the 47% survey average. Notably, 30% of investors see unclear regulation as a major barrier to entry, compared to 45% who cited security and custody issues as major considerations, suggesting that the development of the crypto ecosystem has benefited from regulatory progress. With this in mind, this report aims to highlight new trends and sentiment changes among institutional investors, both to reflect current market conditions and to provide a reference for the future development of the blockchain industry.
3 Reasons to Invest in Digital Assets
Regarding investment strategies, the survey shows that most institutional and professional investors in Singapore are increasing their investment in cryptocurrencies, with 57% of respondents planning to increase their allocation to crypto assets. This is mainly driven by long-term confidence in the cryptocurrency megatrend and its diversification potential, even though the crypto market is in a highly volatile state.
The top reason for investing in cryptocurrencies is the desire to be exposed to the cryptocurrency trend (56%), followed by portfolio diversification (41%) and income returns (39%).
Even amid the current market volatility, 57% of respondents plan to increase their cryptocurrency allocations; 65% say they have a greater risk tolerance for such assets;
27% of respondents plan to maintain their current positions, and only 2.5% plan to reduce their corresponding positions;
Thirty-seven percent of respondents cited the availability of institutional products as a reason for increasing allocations.
In addition, another survey report shows that 63% of respondents have a high risk appetite for crypto assets, indicating that most respondents who are interested in crypto assets are generally more comfortable with its volatility. At the same time, 28% of respondents showed a more cautious interest, aiming to invest in a neutral position. Among the 17% of respondents who are not currently investing in cryptocurrencies, most tend to have a medium to low risk tolerance, and they often mention problems such as lack of trust in the on-chain world and asset volatility. More than a quarter of people are willing to allocate crypto assets in the future, while half have not yet decided to invest in it, and 20% have no relevant investment plans at all.
Strong demand for information on asset classes
Singaporean investors want better quality information and a deeper understanding of digital assets.
90% of Singapore investors said that “access to quality information and a better understanding of the asset class would encourage them to increase their investment or start investing in cryptocurrencies,” compared to the global average of 76%.
Institutional access barriers
It is worth noting that the report also shows that although regulatory clarity has improved, security and custody issues are now the biggest obstacles to the adoption of cryptocurrencies by Singaporean institutions, with 45% of respondents choosing this issue as the main obstacle; lack of effective information and insufficient understanding accounted for 41%, and asset volatility ranked third, also at 41%. The significant improvement in regulatory clarity brought about by the US Bitcoin Spot ETF and Ethereum Spot ETF has injected considerable confidence into more institutions joining the investment ranks, but market education remains crucial.
- 75% of respondents said they believed regulatory clarity had improved;
- 73% of respondents believe that cryptocurrency ETFs increase their confidence in the asset class;
- 90% of respondents said that more complete and comprehensive information would lead them to increase their investment.
Cryptocurrency investment preferences
L1 public chains and Web3 infrastructure are the most attractive areas of cryptocurrency investment at the moment, mainly driven by trends such as DePIN (decentralized physical machine infrastructure network) and AI.
The top three areas of interest to Singaporean investors are L1 (71%), Web3 infrastructure (56%), and L2 (41%).
The top asset classes that respondents believe have the potential for tokenization are mutual funds (47%), corporate bonds (47%), equities (40%), and hedge funds (39%).
In terms of investment preferences, the preferred investment strategies include actively managed investments that generate excess returns (41%), followed by passive income investments (37%) and industry investment exposure in target growth areas (36%).
In addition, 91% of respondents said they mainly invest in blockchain protocol tokens (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum). This reflects an overwhelming preference for mature assets that are considered less volatile and supported by traditional institutions. This interest also extends to other L1 public chain competitors, such as Solana and BNB Chain, decentralized smart contract platforms and ecosystem infrastructure.
Half of the respondents hold stablecoins, taking advantage of their non-volatility as a means of risk hedging and as a “primary ticket” to the cryptocurrency market. Interest in stablecoins has been growing since last year, likely due to the maturing of existing stablecoin regulatory frameworks and the underperformance of many DApp-related tokens relative to mainstream tokens such as Bitcoin and Solana.
It is worth noting that portfolio composition and investment strategies are diversified: nearly 40% of respondents invest in decentralized application (DApp) tokens, 39% invest in NFTs, and only 13% invest only in L1 protocol tokens.
Finally, the study shows that investors who plan to maintain their current allocations may increase their allocations more quickly if market conditions improve, with 46% of investors planning to increase their allocations in the next six months and over 60% of investors optimistic about crypto market investments in 2025.
