After attending a blockchain and cryptoasset "pre-event" at Barron's Top Independent Advisor Summit a few weeks ago, a "magical" thing happened. Host Ric Edelman turned Bitcoin skeptics into Bitcoin bulls.

Actually it wasn't ALL Ric's doing but rather advisors taking a half session presented by the Advisor Blockchain and Cryptoassets Council to gain continuing education credits. With roughly 150 of the U.S. "top financial advisors and influencers in the digital asset sector" taking a half-day training course almost all of the advisors turned from bearish to bullish on Bitcoin.

Quoting a press release, “virtually every participating advisor (96%) who completed a survey said they do not recommend cryptoassets to clients and almost eight in 10 (79%) do not plan to do so,” BEFORE THE EVENT. Ah, but AFTER THE EVENT "89 percent held more favorable views towards cryptoassets and no longer considered Bitcoin (BTC) mere speculation. 82 percent, meanwhile, claimed they were more likely to purchase cryptocurrencies. 71 percent left believing Bitcoin would reach higher prices than they initially expected. Perhaps most importantly, 91 percent stated that they would cease discouraging their clients from purchasing cryptocurrencies".

Obviously there is is a very urgent need to educate advisors about this huge new asset that is taking place. If you don't have the knowledge to explain to your clients what, say digital assets are, someone else will. A little more below from the official press release.

Bill Taylor/ Fintek Capital

SALT LAKE CITY

,

March 29, 2019

/PRNewswire/ -- They entered room as skeptics, and left as believers. That's the conclusion reached by

Ric Edelman

, one of the nation's most prominent financial advisors, following the successful staging of the Blockchain and Cryptoasset Pre-Event, held in conjunction with the Barron's Top Independent Advisor Summit on

March 20

at the Grand America Hotel in

Salt Lake City

. The event was presented by The Advisor Blockchain and Cryptoassets Council, which Edelman founded last year, and sponsored by Kingdom Trust, Bitwise Investments, Blockforce Capital, Fidelity Digital Assets, Grayscale Investments, Orion Advisor Services, Pantera Capital, State Street Global Advisors, and

Van Eck

. The event offered advisors Continuing Education Credits.

More than 155 of the nation's top financial advisors and influencers in the digital asset space came together for a half-day of training and education on blockchain and cryptoassets.

Prior to the event's start, virtually every participating advisor (96%) who completed a survey said they do not recommend cryptoassets to clients and almost eight in 10 (79%) do not plan to do so.

Their views were understandable, considering that:

  • eight in 10 (80%) of these advisors said they know little to nothing about blockchain and cryptoassets;
  • more than nine in 10 (92%) said they were not comfortable explaining cryptoasset concepts to their clients;
  • more than eight in 10 (84%) do not own cryptoassets; and
  • Nearly half (44%) said bitcoin should be considered a speculation, not as an investment.

Given their negativity about blockchain and cryptoassets such as bitcoin, why did these advisors choose to attend a 5-hour program on the topic? They did so because eight in 10 (80%) said they are getting questions from clients about bitcoin, and two-thirds (68%) believe some of their clients own crypto. Only 8% said their clients don't own bitcoin, and the rest didn't know.

Although the advisors' views were sharply negative at the start of the event, their opinions changed dramatically by the end of the program. Surveyed after the program concluded:

  • Nine in 10 (89%) of advisors completing the post-event survey said they now have a more favorable view of cryptoassets;
  • Nine in 10 (89%) no longer believe bitcoin is a speculation;
  • 82% said they are more likely to buy crypto, with nearly three-fourths of them (71%) raising their prediction about the future price of bitcoin; and
  • 91% will either stop discouraging clients from buying crypto or actually buy it for them.

"This remarkable turnaround in attitude by these top financial advisors demonstrates the urgency of teaching advisors about this important emerging asset class," said Edelman, who has been named three times by Barron's as the nation's #1 Independent Financial Advisor. "Advisors who can't answer their clients' questions about bitcoin will lose credibility with their clients, and they may end up losing the clients."

ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTOASSETS

Blockchain technology replaces the traditional "trust economy" with a new "authentication economy." It eliminates the need for middlemen, and allows financial transactions of all sorts to be conducted more quickly, more safely, less expensively and with greater transparency than traditional methods of commerce allow. Data placed on the blockchain are visible virtually instantly, and cannot be deleted, copied, altered or hidden.

Cryptoassets are vehicles used to conduct transactions on the blockchain, and include cryptocurrencies, utility and platform tokens, and tokenized securities.

Thanks to blockchain and cryptoassets, virtually every type of transaction can be accommodated – from brokerage transactions to concert tickets to marriage certificates – with massive improvements for buyer and seller, albeit at the expense of the broker or middleman.