British billionaire Simon Nixon's family office reportedly plans to increase its crypto holdings

• Billionaire Simon Nixon wants his Seek Capital family office to increase crypto holdings, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
• The office's managing director said it wants to hire an analyst focused on the sector.
• Investment firms of rich families are increasingly becoming involved or interested in crypto.

Simon Nixon, co-founder of UK price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com, wants his family office to increase its crypto holdings, Bloomberg reported Thursday, highlighting moves by the ultra-rich to gain exposure to digital assets.

Crypto allocation "is an important area for the future," said Adam Proctor, a managing director at Nixon's Seek Capital, in a statement, according to the report. The family office is looking to hire an analyst who will focus on the sector, said Proctor, who this year joined Seek Capital after his work at Citigroup's private bank.

Nixon's venture capital firm Seek Ventures says he manages more than $1 billion of personal assets in the tech sector. The 54-year-old co-founded Moneysupermarket.com in 1993 and finished offloading his shares in the company in 2016.

Investment firms managing the money of rich families are becoming increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies. A Goldman Sachs survey of 150 family offices released in July showed 15% had already bought crypto assets and 45% of respondents said such assets could perform well in the future.

Many survey respondents said they were looking at cryptocurrencies as a way to position for higher inflation and prolonged low rates at a time of unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus.

​​Crypto investors this year have seen the market boom to a valuation of more than $2 trillion, with bitcoin in April driving beyond valuation of $1 trillion. It lost grip of that figure with a selloff stoked in part by Chinese and US regulatory concerns. Bitcoin this week reclaimed the $50,000 level but struggled below that price during Thursday's session.