Morgan Stanley and CME Group Signal Wall Street’s Deepening Crypto Push

I am joined by Andy Baehr, Managing Director of Asset Management at GSR, and we will be telling you all about what's happening right on the ground here in Miami.

So Andy, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

So exciting to be back at Consensus.

Absolutely.

Now this convention hall is packed, and I know you've been attending so many events.

So give us an overview of what you've seen so far.

This is my first consensus as a, as a user rather than as a producer, and it's just as energizing.

It's great to see the community.

Get together at the hopefully the end of a long crypto winter and a long kind of New York winter.

Um, we're seeing some signs of energy reentering the market, some actual liquidations on the upside, which is kind of exciting.

So, um, let's hope that this is a convergence of the seasons changing.

Speaking of convergence, you're talking about the theme of this year's gathering here at Consensus.

We're seeing Trad 5, D5 policymakers, builders.

Innovators, media here on the ground.

So give us an idea of where we are in terms of sentiment for Bitcoin and what do you make of the price action that we're seeing?

First of all, I'm, I'm kind of feeling like a lot of my old Tradfi colleagues at places like Morgan Stanley and the Futures exchanges, they're getting in on the fun.

They're kind of joining the movement now.

Um, I'm a little, uh, well, we've been here for years, so, OK, come on in.

But, you know, like, come to consensus.

Experience it, to see, uh, Morgan Stanley offer, uh, spa trading through E-Trade on top of their, uh, ETFs and to see CME launching volatility futures on, on Bitcoin really means that we're really in a very US centric way, bringing a lot of people in.

So, that slow money movement that we've been talking about for just about a year now is just the beat just continues.

Uh, it feels like a little bit of energy is re-entering prices to help catch up.

Yeah, and as you mentioned, a lot of announcements as well as partnerships being announced here at consensus, and that's the norm for these types of gatherings.

But it's hard to keep up with all of these announcements that are happening.

So I do want to ask you about what we're seeing in terms of the vibe on the ground, and are you surprised at what's happening?

I'm, I'm not at all surprised.

I think that crypto is taken.

And, uh, a lead from other risk-on assets right now, there, when there's a geopolitical event going on, and nobody knows what's gonna happen next.

Uh, you're kind of welcome the correlation with things like equities, uh, as, as sentiment returns to a more relaxed state of, I can invest more assertively here.

Uh, our, uh, uh, GSR crypto core 3 ETF is enjoying this kind of momentum with Solo.

And Ethereum participating both in this, in this newer rally.

So, we're happy about that.

We're happy about the fact that investors can get one, you know, core allocation with one ETF, uh, with staking as well.

So, um, I think the mood on the ground is relief, uh, to see Bitcoin over 80,000, which was a pretty hard ceiling for a while, and to see what kind of breadth this new kind of leg up can, um, you know, can include.

Yeah, and Andy, you and I have talked about the different seasons of crypto, and you and I have gone through these different cycles.

So you talked about some of these solutions over at GSR in terms of products.

So tell us the why behind those products.

A lot of people, what I'm, what we're learning about.

In hundreds and hundreds of institutional investor meetings, folks want yields.

Folks want to make their assets work for them.

Of course, in our, in our ETF, Ether and Solano work for the investor both in terms of their staking yields, but also in terms of active management.

Finally, we're seeing.

I think a good combination of rigor and innovation in the lending markets so that people can actually use their high quality, you know, top high quality crypto assets as collateral, borrow against them and do things with the money.

That's more, much more active now, and I think it will continue to be more active.

Uh, as more and more traditional institutions sort of integrate this idea of getting more comfortable with Bitcoin or Ether, uh, or Solana as collateral against loans to do other things, uh, aside from leverage, but, you know, just to, just to be able to use them as financing vehicles is becoming much more sophisticated.

So we're exploring different ways.

Um, to participate in that space.

Um, aside from that, you know, the volatility has come down so much, uh, especially in Bitcoin, that use of Bitcoin as collateral is gonna be a little bit easier.

So, I think the financialization of these top-quality assets is Definitely the theme that is that I'm thinking about most these days.

Well, Andy, so great to see you here in Miami on the ground at Consensus 2020.

Different kind of background noise from the New York Stock Exchange, right?

Stock Exchange, right?

Well, I look forward to seeing you back in New York.

Thank you so much and have a great time here.

Thanks for meeting you.

Bye bye.