Asset Manager Stone Ridge Discloses $115 Million in Bitcoin Holdings

New York-based investment asset management company Stone Ridge has today revealed in a Forbes article that it holds over $115 million in Bitcoin.

This puts the asset manager in the same category as MicroStrategy and Square Inc., two other U.S. companies that recently added Bitcoin to their portfolio.

But Stone Ridge’s involvement with Bitcoin dates back to 2017 when the company identified a growing interest in the new asset class amid many of its staff and clients. Rather than let the demand wane, the asset manager decided to launch a non-wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to Bitcoin.

The subsidiary company dubbed the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) in an unannounced investment raised $50 million that eventually attracted the interest of institutional investors.

In a recent development, NYDIG opened the floor for another fundraise that saw large institutional investors such as Ribbit Capital Bessemer Ventures and Fintech Collective, which brought about a total of $100 million.

According to today’s announcement, NYDIG is in the custody of Stone Ridge’s 10,000 Bitcoin, which, when converted, is equivalent to $115 million at the current price, similar to the $450 million combined worth of Bitcoin recently bought by Square and MicroStrategy.

The sudden increase in the acquisition of Bitcoin by suits has been linked to the COVID-19 induced market crash in March, which affected many businesses.

“We’ve seen a pretty dramatic acceleration in the count of institutional investors who want to participate in the market since March of this year,” Robert Gutmann,  CEO and co-founder of NYDIG observed.

For him, the dramatic change of events within the health sector served to reset people’s thinking. He concluded, “The macro backdrop against the public health backdrop has caused a lot of people to rethink their portfolio composition.”

See also: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Acquired More Than 60,000 BTC in the Last 100 Days