British Giant Asset Manager Invests In A Crypto Exchange

Aberdeen (ABDN), one of the UK’s largest wealth management companies, has acquired a stake in Archax, the first and only UK-regulated digital securities exchange.

Archax said on Friday that the Edinburgh, Scotland-based company is now the stock market’s largest outside shareholder. In an email, Abrdn refused to give the stock size or say how much he bought it. Asset managers in traditional finance are increasingly scrutinizing ways to leverage the digital asset industry.

Today’s announcement comes a day after the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock (BLK), announced a spot Bitcoin private trust for US insitutional investors fresh out of its partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Archax aims to provide permits for blockchain-based digital assets for institutional investors, acting as a bridge to traditional finance. It registered with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in August 2020, making it the first exchange to do so with digitized securities.

Abrdn CEO Talks About Crypto Investment

In this sense, the growth of the digital investment market is much more than cryptocurrencies, Abrdn CEO Stephen Bird said in a statement:

Abrdn:

“Archax is one of the most profitable UK players in finance (with use of digital and tokenized securities with same day consensus in the next expected high growth area).”

With assets under its management of GBP 464 billion, Abrdn is the UK’s largest asset manager.