During a recent interview with Thinking Crypto, Mark Yusko, the founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management, mentions that their cryptocurrency index fund excludes XRP and Stellar (XLM) because these assets are 'closely held.'
'We exclude anything that is too closely held. So, we don't own Stellar, we don't own XRP.'
He elaborates that his hedge fund doesn't own these assets because a large portion of them is controlled centralized companies (Ripple and the Stellar Dedevelopment Foundation, respectively).
The S&P 500 of crypto
The Digital Asset Index Fund was launched by Morgan Creek Capital in partnership with Bitwise back in 2018 in order to allow sophisticated institutional investors to dip their toes into crypto.
As of now, the index fund covers 75 percent of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. It offers exposure to ten digital assets, with Bitcoin (BTC) being the largest constituent (80.9 percent).
'The reason we set up the Digital Asset Index Fund the way we did is we want to be the S&P 500 of crypto.'
There is still a chance for XRP
Yusko says that they XRP and Stellar are not as 'freely tradable' or Bitcoin or Ethereum (ETH).
The American investor doesn't rule out they Morgan Creek opens its arms for XRP if Ripple changes its distribution model.
'I still struggle with the XRP/Ripple structure, or how cash flows are created or shared, but that's a topic for another day. Yes, there is a point at which, if they had enough distribution of XRP, it could qualify for the index.'
XRP and XLM routinely face criticism because of their high centralization. As reported by U.Today, they have the highest level of wealth inequality among the top cryptocurrencies.
Tomiwabold Olajide
Dan Burgin
