Pantera Capital CEO says institutional bitcoin adoption is changing the crypto narrative

Pantera Capital's CEO Dan Morehead says initial coin offerings (ICO) aren't dead, but the narrative is gearing towards a bitcoin and ethereum ruled world for investors.

"Crypto as a market is so volatile that the narrative changes," said Morehead on this week's episode of The Scoop. 

That narrative lately has been all about bitcoin's growing adoption. From Microstrategy to Stone Ridge Holdings — and maybe soon the city of Miami — big players are allocating millions into the cryptocurrency.

But as the money flows towards bitcoin adoption, ICO's aren't over, according to Morehead. Pantera is still pitched one every two to four months, and the firm's initial coin offering (ICO) fund ended 2020 up more than 500%. 

Still, that's a sharp decline from the 50 pitches a week Pantera sifted through in 2017, and its bitcoin fund closed 2020 up nearly 300%. The crypto narrative for investors is trending towards bitcoin amid institutional adoption, Morehead told The Scoop.

"We’re really seeing an inflection point with more coming into the market over the last couple of months....I think the reality is they’re looking for managers that manage multi asset funds sometimes both tokens and venture and they ultimately want that all to be within a handful of managers," he said.

Lately, he's getting calls from many endowments, putting the industry at an inflection point with so many entering the space. Driving the interest in bitcoin is the current macro backdrop as well as bitcoin's spring halving last year—which the firm said could play a role in bringing its price to $115,000. 

He broke down what that means for the coming year on this week's episode, along with:

• Why the market is so focused on BTC and ETH this time around compared to the focus on initial coin offerings in 2017.
• What institutional investors want out of a bitcoin or crypto fund manager 
• Why Coinbase's initial public offering will kick off a wave of crypto companies going public.
• How the industry is going to consolidate in the coming years, and why many exchanges are in a prime position to get rolled up.
• Why Pantera is "much more bullish on Ethereum" than other parts of the space.