Bitcoin
Apart from, the best investment in crypto is its “elections and shovels”, according to the $ 1.6 CEO of Aktiv Manager Franklin Templeton.
Jenny Johnson, the third generation of the manager of the manager, spoke at the Salt Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Tuesday, and doubled what in her opinion will be the biggest application cases for blockchain technology and where investors should put their money.
In her view, Bitcoin acts as a “fear currency” – an economic refuge for people in countries where governments can block access to funds or where national currencies lose value over time. But despite her appeal in these scenarios, she sees it as a distraction.
Bitcoin, she claims, is the “greatest distraction for one of the biggest disturbances that come to financial services.”
This disturbance, she said, lies in the underlying infrastructure – not in digital assets themselves, but in the systems that support them. This is where she thinks capital should be focused.
“Choices and shovels are baseline for the strong, layered apps,” Johnson said. “I like the rails as a starting point,” she added, referring to blockchain networks. “Then there are some good consumer apps that come out, which I think is really exciting.”
She also sees promise in the role of validators, the devices that maintain blockchain networks. For active investment leaders, they could offer a new layer of transparency and are a “game switch”.
“Imagine looking at public equity all the transactions that go in and out of that company and how much information gives you,” she said.
Johnson led the asset management company to digital assets after taking over her family’s company in 2020. Under her management, the company has launched several crypto exchange products and introduced onchain US Government Market Fund, a tokenized investment vehicle.
She expects financial products such as mutual foundations and ETFs to eventually move to blockchains where they could work more efficiently and to lower costs. But for now, regulation remains the “biggest inhibitor” to that shift, she said.
Part of the hesitation, she added, comes from the large number of digital assets that are likely to fail – a level of risk regulators is not yet prepared to control.
