AUSTIN, Texas — Asset managers are salivating at opportunities in growth capital and depressed tokens that have taken an excessive blow without merit during the crypto bear market, market participants said at the event. Consensus 2023 from Wednesday.
Dawn Harflinger, CEO of Lili'uokalani Trust, and others who invest in the crypto sector offered a tone of optimism despite the recent market destruction, which Harflinger likened to the episode's famous bloodbath." Red Wedding" from the HBO series "Game of Thrones". .”
Harflinger said she was looking forward to hitting the "burning buildings" of this market, saying in particular that she was excited to gain additional exposure to secondaries, by directly participating in blockchain company funding rounds in growth stage.
She shared a panel at Consensus with Matt Halstead, the director of real estate and digital assets for Texas Teachers, and Dan Tapiero, CIO at 10T Holdings.
Halstead argued that digital assets are “an investment that has the potential to be integral to the future of technology,” highlighting the broader impact of innovations. Halstead also acknowledged both the volatility of digital assets and their willingness to accept it, indicating that they have very little opinion on market timing.
"It's unclear how the industry will evolve, but we think the future is bright," Halstead said. The overriding theme is that the opportunities in digital assets are multi-faceted, he said, and that valuations – while falling – are worth exposing.
This message was echoed by other panel members.
The digital asset ecosystem is broader and deeper than in the past, Tapiero said, and the assets have lower correlations to bitcoin itself. Although he asserted that "I don't hear anyone saying that Bitcoin is going to zero", he said that the existence of uncorrelated digital assets gives institutions the opportunity to expand beyond bitcoin, such as invest in discounted altcoins and tokens.
The increased adoption of digital assets from traditional finance has led to valuations being pushed to excessive levels, Tapiero said. Asset valuations of 10x to 12x earnings have been replaced with valuations of 50x to 100x. The resulting declines led to a crypto winter felt by more participants.
As valuations rallied, Tapiero argued that now was a good time for big returns.
“If you know what you like and what kind of portfolio you want to create, now is the best time to invest in crypto,” he said.