Bringing cryptocurrency exposure to US investors is the aim of WisdomTree’s latest launch of its +Crypto Model Portfolios in collaboration with Onramp Invest which features Gemini integration.
The initiative, says Will Peck, Head of Strategy and Emerging Technologies at WisdomTree Asset Management, is designed to aid financial advisers as they navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital asset management.
“The logic was that we have seen in a lot of the research and our own conversations that there is definitely a desire for more understanding of crypto assets,” Peck says. “It was the big story of 2021, but crypto assets are not accessible for most advisers in the US and this is a great way to demonstrate how you can use crypto in a well-diversified portfolio.”
Currently, the products are educational model portfolios that WisdomTree hopes to make more actionable in the future as the Onramp Invest technology develops.
The suite of ETF model portfolios allocates in crypto assets while maintaining balance through equity and fixed income ETFs. When advisers using the models allocate to crypto, they are connected directly with Onramp Invest, with integration into Gemini, a crypto platform founded by the Winklevoss twins.
The crypto assets are bitcoin and Ethereum. “We chose those currencies because they are the largest and have the most established investment thesis right now,” Peck says. “They all have different rationales but bitcoin has established itself as an aspirational gold competitor outside of the hand of governments, and is the original and largest crypto asset which is a good first entry for the advisers to get into the space, and ether is almost a play more on the world’s computer of the future.”
Onramp Invest’s technology allows advisers to incorporate bitcoin and Ethereum into an adviser’s work flows, doing what Peck calls ‘the heavy lifting’ with a team of people which comes from a RIA background and understands how to demystify portfolio construction considerations around crypto and help advisers help their clients incorporate crypto assets into their portfolios.
