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Despite surging interest among retail investors, most financial advisors remain unwilling or unable to handle crypto-related requests from clients, several advisors and analysts told Decrypt.  “I talk with other financial planners all the time—99.99% of them vehemently disagree with me,” said Jim Crider, a Texas-based certified financial planner who often recommends Bitcoin to his clients. “They think Bitcoin is tulips and Beanie Babies, and absolutely worthless.”  This skepticism could present a problem for the financial advisor industry. If demand from main street keeps growing—with Bitcoin repeatedly breaking all-time high price marks lately and other cryptocurrencies surging alongside—then advisors who don’t use or discuss crypto may risk losing clients. “If you’re an advisor that is not able to offer it and not able to talk about it, then they might seek somebody who is willing to,” said Matt Apkarian, associate director of product development at research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates, who has studied the financial advisor industry. Although most analysts agree that retail has played a smaller role in the current bull market than in previous cycles, several advisors told Decrypt that they have recently seen a significant bump in interest.  “I would say this year, and especially this past week with the surge in the crypto market, we have seen more requests than ever,” said Jonathan Barrett of New Jersey-based Barrett Financial Advisors.  “When it was a budding alternative asset class, many people hadn’t heard of it and were very skeptical,” he added. “But the idea of a decentralized currency is becoming more and more common, and interest has spiked.” Retail enthusiasm appears to have grown since Election Day. Commonly cited indicators, like the number of Google searches for crypto-related terms and the App Store ranking of the Coinbase app (among other crypto apps) have skyrocketed.  “Retail is jumping…

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Filed under: News - @ November 18, 2024 2:28 am