Academic institutions and universities have started to get involved in the cryptocurrency market, acknowledging the long-term potential of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.

By definition, an institutional investor is an entity that collect funds from different sources to purchase properties, securities, and assets. Institutional investors include entities like banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds.

Small hedge funds and medium-sized investment companies are not institutional entities, contrary to the views of many investors in the cryptocurrency market. However, bodies like universities are proper institutional investors that can allocate many billions of dollars into the cryptocurrency market and increase the liquidity of cryptocurrencies.

Institutional money started flowing into cryptocurrency in mid 2017, but it’s been slower than many expected. That doesn’t mean it’s not coming. There are a lot of pieces that need to come together, one big piece being third party custody. Custody isn’t doubled. It’s not like Coinbase custody will launch and suddenly every pension will throw $100m into BTC. It takes time for custody solutions to gain trustworthiness. It is believed that we’ll have solid third party custody by September of this year.

Source:
https://www.ccn.com/universities-have-started-to-invest-in-bitcoin-start-of-institutional-adoption/