After watching the cryptocurrency craze from the sidelines for a decade, even hardened sceptics are plunging in and buying their first digital assets.

Is this a moment of vindication for the pioneers who promoted digital currencies as an asset class and heralded a technological and financial revolution? Or is it a sign that the hype cycle is reaching its final, frenzied moments before the fever breaks? I wish I knew — because I am one of those sceptics. And now I own a non-fungible token, or NFT.

The annual survey of family offices by Citi Private Bank, which landed in September, found 23 per cent now have crypto assets in their portfolio, and another 25 per cent are considering them. Of family office executives who attended a Citi forum connected to the report, half said they expected to increase allocations to crypto in the next year. These are big numbers from often conservative managers of other people’s money. Interest in digital assets, which spread first from the over-thinkers (crypto-utopians thrilled by a complex solution to an unasked question) to the under-thinkers (herd-followers seeing a quick buck in a barely comprehended trade), appears to have finally reached the consensus-thinkers.