Cryptocurrency is in the portfolios of half of Asia's wealthiest investors, according to a report.

Cryptocurrency is in the portfolios of half of Asia's wealthiest investors, according to a report.

According to Accenture study, this proportion is predicted to rise to 72 percent by the end of 2022.

Affluent Asian investors are neither afraid nor uninformed of crypto, according to data, with 51 percent of them holding some type of digital asset in Q1 2022.

According to study, digital assets, which include cryptocurrencies, stable coins, and crypto funds, accounted for an average of 7% of polled investors' portfolios, making them Asia's fifth-largest asset class.

It was more than they put into foreign currencies, commodities, and collectibles, and in certain cases, it was equal to or more than the amount put into private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds.

More than 3,200 clients from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand were surveyed. An affluent investor, according to the firm, is someone who manages investable assets worth between $100,000 and $1 million.

When compared to their peers, Thai and Indonesian investors have the highest share of digital assets in their portfolios.

Despite the fact that half of Asian investors had digital assets in Q1 2022, research shows that another 21% are likely to do so by the end of the year, implying that as many as 72 percent of rich Asian investors might own one by the end of the year.

Wealth managers holding back

Wealth management organisations, which provide financial planning, tax, investment, and estate planning to their clients, have been sluggish to jump on the crypto bandwagon, according to the survey. According to the survey, 66% of wealth management businesses have no intentions to offer digital asset products or services.

Wealth management organisations identified a lack of conviction in and knowledge of digital assets, a wait-and-see attitude, and the operational difficulty of starting a digital asset offering as the key reasons for delaying, instead prioritising other efforts.

Asian investors were more interested in cryptocurrency in the previous year.

In April, a report found that crypto adoption skyrocketed in 2021, particularly in countries such as India and Hong Kong. Around 45% of respondents in the Asia Pacific purchased their first crypto in 2021.