MassMutual’s Flourish Crypto Adds ETH, Publishes Regulatory Plan

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Flourish Crypto Provides RIAs Access to Growing Digital Asset Market Platform Now Offers Ethereum In Addition To Bitcoin In Response To Growing Demand For More Tokens

MassMutual’s investment platform Flourish Crypto has added Ethereum to its portfolio of assets, giving registered investment advisers (RIAs) better access to the digital asset market, the insurance giant said Thursday. .

Flourish started about three years ago as Flourish Cash, a management solution that now works with around 420 RIAs nationwide and represents over $ 1 trillion in total end customer assets. Flourish Crypto was first launched in September 2021 with bitcoin as RIAs continued to express interest in digital asset investment opportunities.

“We started speaking with advisors about a year ago, and the evolution of demand over the past year has been astounding,” said Ben Cruikshank, director of Flourish. “Today pretty much every company we talk to is saying ‘we would love bitcoin and we would love ethereum, and we would love to hear your take on what’s to come.” I can’t stress enough how much this is. conversation really changed in just six to 12 months.

Flourish Crypto has integrated dozens of RIAs with average assets under management of around $ 1 billion. RIAs generally find it difficult to access the crypto market on behalf of their clients, as tokens cannot be traded on traditional brokerage platforms. The Flourish product has filled a significant gap in the market, said Cruikshank.

“We’ve seen crypto grow into a multi-billion dollar asset class, we’ve seen tens and tens of millions of Americans open accounts or buy and sell cryptocurrency,” he said. . “And for the most part, when we spoke to the RIAs, they felt like they were completely left out – that this whole crypto world was just overtaking them.”

Flourish Cash helped the Flourish team begin to understand the RIA community and create a cryptocurrency platform that met their needs, Cruikshank said.

“It’s built with the flexibility they need when it comes to negotiation, transfers, regulatory and compliance considerations and integrations, customer support, you name it,” he said. “We kind of customized the crypto solution for the advisor world so that RIAs can access the crypto so they can bring it to the client so that they can potentially help millions of new Americans get it. which is often their first exposure to crypto. ”

Regulatory uncertainty

As different regulators in the United States continue to grapple with how to approach and oversee the digital asset space, compliance issues have been a priority for many RIAs, Cruikshank said. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the primary regulator for the RIA community, but the SEC has not been very clear on guidelines for digital assets.

“As an advisor regulated directly by the SEC, it’s really, really important to make sure what you’re doing is what your regulators are comfortable with,” Cruikshank said.

In response to the uncertain regulatory environment, Flourish has partnered with Perkins Coie LLP, an international law firm specializing in the financial technology, blockchain and investment management space, on a white paper that addresses the considerations regulatory and compliance for RIAs seeking to engage with cryptocurrencies.

“If you think back to all the reasons advisers can’t embrace crypto today, the uncertain regulatory and compliance landscape is often one of the top three things on the list,” said Cruikshank. “Fortunately, we believe there is definitely a way forward.”

As for the Flourish Crypto suite, it is difficult to predict which tokens or cryptocurrencies might be added to the Flourish Crypto suite in the future, Cruikshank said. The SEC has determined that neither bitcoin nor ethereum are considered “securities” for purposes of federal securities laws, but it is not clear how other tokens might be classified in the future.

“Until there is more regulatory clarity, you won’t see advisers taking things too far down this spectrum,” Cruikshank said. “In terms of additional tokens or additional cryptocurrencies, this is a slow but steady type of expansion and very cautious and very regulatory.”

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Casey wagner

Blockworks

Journalist

Casey Wagner is a New York-based business journalist who covers digital assets and macroeconomics. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on the markets at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia in Media Studies.

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