From cointelegraph by Big Smokey

In a few years, finance wonks and crypto advocates will look back to 2024 and agree that it was the year Bitcoin went mainstream and saw mass adoption within traditional finance. The incredibly successful launch of the spot Bitcoin ETFs, MicroStrategy CEO Micheal Saylor’s plan to buy $42 billion in Bitcoin and Bitcoin rallying to a new all-time high are just a few of the major milestones of the year. 

Bitcoin BTC$69,412 is officially in the big leagues and deep dives into how BTC’s integration into all aspects of finance are a frequent topic of discussion by analysts and thought leaders at crypto conferences and on social media. In order to get a better understanding of the ramifications of Bitcoin and crypto’s integration into traditional finance, Cointelegraph spoke to Brian Russ, the chief investment officer at 1971 Capital. 

Cointelegraph: Institutional and retail investors are buying shares of the spot Bitcoin ETFs, but further down the road, how do you see BTC being integrated into investment portfolios? 

Brian Russ: I absolutely think it will be the case where you’ll see wealth management firms and asset management firms start to show to their client base that had they diversified into Bitcoin or a combination of Bitcoin and Ethereum within their 60/40, that it would have enhanced their returns dramatically. And I think as that research starts to come out, those big registered investment advisers are going to push their customers into getting off of zero. 

VanEck was one of the first to kind of fire shots on this. They were out with a research report probably as far back as six months ago, just after the Bitcoin ETF launched. Unsurprisingly, the Bitcoin Spot ETF and it showed exactly this. It was essentially a histogram that showed the traditional 60 over 40 has given you about a 9% return. But had you allocated to a combination of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETH$2,508.37 and they looked at different allocation levels, the top allocation level was 7%. So had you done 60% equities, 33% bonds and 7% Bitcoin and ETH, instead of the 9% return, you would have earned a 17% return. 

So that's pretty compelling, right? And I think as you see more of this research come out, you’ll see more, whether it’s individuals, family offices, institutional investors who are sitting on the sidelines say, look, let's put half a percent in or let's put 5% in.