Institutional interest in crypto hasn’t declined, says LMAX CEO

The bear market is in play, but that hasn’t affected how institutional investors are looking at the cryptocurrency market.

LMAX Group CEO David Mercer told TechCrunch in a recent interview that institutional investors in the crypto space have not changed their stance regarding the market.

The cryptocurrency market has been in a bearish trend for nearly a year now, with the prices of most assets down by more than 60% during that period.

The total market cap has dropped from its all-time high of $3 trillion to stand around $1 trillion.

When asked about the institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, Mercer said;

“It hasn’t gone backward. After the chaos surrounding crypto lending platforms like Celsius and BlockFi and the collapse of the Terra LUNA ecosystem in May, everyone expected institutions to retract their engagement.”

However, the LMAX CEO said the institutional engagement today is the same as last year, and can even be described as better. He pointed out institutions are moving ahead despite the current market position. 

LMAX launched LMAX Digital in 2018. The company was designed to be an institutional cryptocurrency exchange. Mercer told TechCrunch that;

“[When we launched] we asked 35 banks if they wanted to trade this product and have market data, they said no. Today, 14 of those 35 take our market data.”

The cryptocurrency market has been underperforming since the start of the year. In November 2021, the total cryptocurrency market cap reached an all-time high of $3 trillion.

At the time, several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, also reached new all-time highs. 

However, the bear market has been in play since then, with Bitcoin and Ether both down by more than 60% from their all-time highs.

Bitcoin has been struggling to stay above the $20k psychological level in recent weeks, while Ether continues to trade at around $1,500 despite the recent Ethereum Merge event.