If there is one crypto to buy right now, it's Bitcoin (BTC -0.69%). There is a paradigm shift happening in the investment world right now, and Bitcoin is the reason. In early August, Coinbase (COIN 4.68%) announced that it was linking with the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock (BLK 0.86%), to offer crypto investment services for large institutional investors and wealthy private clients. To translate this into everyday language, Bitcoin is now safe for the big guys to buy.
Within hours of the announcement, wild price predictions about Bitcoin began to circulate, going as high as and $773,000 (from about $24,000 today). You get the idea. The Coinbase/BlackRock news is that big. In a nutshell, the partnership deal means that the largest institutional investors -- like pension funds, mutual funds, foundations and endowments -- can buy crypto, and more specifically Bitcoin. With the potential for so much money chasing after it, there is going to be upward pressure on the price of Bitcoin. The time to get in is now, before it's too late.
The Coinbase/BlackRock deal
To understand the magnitude of the Coinbase/BlackRock deal, consider that Forbes called it a "$10 trillion earthquake." That's because BlackRock manages $10 trillion in assets from some of the largest institutional investors in the world. Even if you take a conservative view, BlackRock clients will likely begin to allocate a small percentage of their assets (say, 1%) to crypto. Even that small change in allocation might be enough to send Bitcoin soaring. That's because we're dealing with large numbers here. One percent of $10 trillion is $100 billion, all of which will be looking to find a new home in the crypto world. To put that number into context, the total market cap of Bitcoin right now is about $460 billion.
Image source: Getty Images.
Sure, not all of that $100 billion from BlackRock will go into Bitcoin, but it's a near certainty that Bitcoin will get the most attention from investors. This is going to have a very real impact on asset allocation, if big institutional investors really do perceive crypto as a brand new, well defined asset class. Big institutional investors used to focus on traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds. However, in the 1990s, they started moving into riskier asset classes like real estate and private equity, all in the name of juicing returns and hedging overall market risk. That trend is continuing now with the move into crypto. These same investors are going to be allocating a tiny portion of their portfolios to crypto, alongside all their other alternative investments. That's why this is such a huge paradigm shift: Bitcoin is going mainstream for the super-wealthy and the really big players in the financial world.
The paradigm shift on Wall Street
Keep in mind that this paradigm shift is also happening at many major Wall Street banks, not just BlackRock. When Wall Street was wary of crypto, the result often was up fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in the marketplace by playing up the risk of crypto. But when Wall Street wants to invest in crypto for clients, it's a very different picture. Crypto becomes just one more tool for diversifying a portfolio and adjusting the overall risk-reward profile.
In 2017, for example, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink called Bitcoin a conduit for money laundering and dismissed it as an asset class. Five years later, he is willing to commit a portion of the $10 trillion worth of assets under his management to Bitcoin. When people change their view of the world, they move their money accordingly.
As a result, the time to buy Bitcoin is now. Once the big institutional investors decide they truly want to get in on the Bitcoin action, it will be much harder to get a bargain price. This is not about "buying the dip" and hoping against hope that Bitcoin goes up in price. This is about responding to a major paradigm shift happening right now in the marketplace. The best way to do that is by buying Bitcoin.
