‘High Net Worth’ Chileans Growing Crypto Keen

“High-net-worth-individuals” in Chile are growing increasingly keen on crypto investment, an expert has claimed.

Per America Economia, the comments were made by Christopher Storaker, the CEO of Arch Finance, a crypto investment firm with a presence in the Latin American country.

Storaker said:

“We have seen a growing interest [in crypto] from high-net-worth-individuals in Chile due to a significant change in the mentality of professional investors. [They] recognize the potential [tokens] have to diversify their investments and are taking advantage of the attributes of this technology.”

The company stated that it had noticed an uptick in the number of family offices that are taking an interest in crypto.

The firm said that the number of family offices “intending to make changes to their investment strategies or portfolio allocations” doubled from 23% in 2020 to 46% in 2022.

Storaker added:

“We conducted an analysis of traditional portfolios (60% stocks and 40% fixed income), which revealed that a minimal exposure to cryptoassets (of between 1% and 5%) can significantly benefit portfolio performance.”

He claimed that such exposure to crypto could boost family office portfolio returns by between “6% to 12% per year depending on their level of exposure to crypto.”

The CEO added that the “base demand” for crypto was currently “expanding” as “professional and sophisticated institutional players enter the market.”

Crypto: a New LATAM Crypto Player?

Crypto adoption appears to be rising in Chile.

In March, Mercado Pago, the fintech wing of the crypto-keen LATAM e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, added crypto trading functions to its app in Chile.

The Mercado Pago app allows Chilean users to buy and sell cryptoassets starting from 50 Chilean pesos (around $0.06).

At the end of last year, Chilean President Gabriel Boric signed the nation’s so-called “Fintech Law,” a piece of legislation that grants cryptoassets a legal status as “digital financial assets.”

Buda, the nation’s best-known crypto exchange, earlier this year praised the law and compared it favorably with US legislation.

The platform said, per Diario Financiero,

“Unlike the US, in Chile, the Fintech Law has provided clarity on the legality of exchange activities. It considers crypto assets to be financial instruments, which exchanges can offer their customers, so long as they comply with relevant obligations.”

The trading platform suggested that the law had “provided a space for the growth and development of the crypto market.”

In 2021, a leading MP and opposition party leader admitted to owning Ethereum (ETH) tokens.

And in March this year, the crypto exchange giant Bitfinex struck an investment deal with the Chile-based crypto player Orionx.