Bitcoin ETFs will drive institutional adoption and company growth: Crystal CEO Navin Gupta

Navin Gupta, the newly appointed CEO of Crystal Intelligence, expects the blockchain intelligence firm’s growth to continue throughout 2024.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Gupta said that he expects the company’s growth to further accelerate as the non-regulated part of the crypto industry shrinks, thanks to the approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, which led to an increase in the number of firms applying for operating licenses, according to Gupta. He said:

“Hundreds of firms were waiting in license queue, and they are in some form of regulatory discussion with the regulator to make sure that they get licensed. Every single firm that gets regulated needs compliance software, monitoring, and to prove to the regulator that they are doing Anti-Money Laundering compliance…”

Crystal Intelligence offers blockchain analysis and investigative and compliance solutions to institutions and regulators. The firm’s global customer base doubled during 2023, with Crystal’s product now monitoring over 50,000 organizations, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph. The company was founded by Bitfury in 2017.

According to Gupta, the growing stablecoin adoption is also expected to increase the need for Crystal’s compliance services.

“[Stablecoin payments] are cross-border transfers of value. So, there’s the same Travel Rule that most transaction monitoring rules need to be applied, which brings a new swath of customers who want to accept or pay through stablecoins.”

Stablecoins are the most widely used crypto assets, accounting for over 50% of on-chain transaction volume to or from centralized services between July 2022 and June 2023, according to “The Chainalysis 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency” report.

Bitcoin ETFs will fortify institutional trust in crypto

According to Gupta, the recently launched spot Bitcoin ETFs will bring a steady inflow of non-speculative investment for the first time in Bitcoin’s history, legitimizing the asset class in the eyes of global regulatory authorities. Gupta said institutional investors have already started looking at the asset class more favorably.

“[Institutional adoption] is already happening. BlackRock manages trillions of dollars, and Bitcoin is a very small part of it. But they’ve already dipped their toes in the water, and the same is true for regulators.”

Gupta expects this to incentivize ETF issuers like BlackRock to launch additional funds:

“BlackRock does that; the peers have to do it. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle moving forward. So, we are very bullish about this space.”

An estimated 75% of new Bitcoin investments come from the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs, according to a report by on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant.

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