DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Despite watching

Bitcoin's scorching run past $100,000 and the inauguration of

Donald Trump, who has pledged to be a "crypto president" in the

U.S., some of the world's largest investors said this week they

still plan to stay on the sidelines.

"I am not an advocate, nor a critic ... it is not what it

was supposed to be, which was an alternative to banking," said

Anne Walsh, chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners,

which is headquartered in New York and Chicago.

"To me, what crypto really correlates to is Nasdaq - it's a

risk-on appetite indicator to me," she told the Reuters Global

Markets Forum on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's

annual meeting in Davos.

Walsh said her investment firm, which manages assets of more

than $335 billion, has so far not invested in crypto.

Meanwhile, Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway's $1.8

trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said he did

not see crypto becoming a part of Norges Bank Investment

Management's portfolio.

Bitcoin hit a record high of $109,071 on Monday when Trump

was sworn in as president.

The world's largest cryptocurrency more than doubled in

price last year after the U.S. market regulator's approval for

exchange traded funds (ETF) tied to its spot price, and optimism

over easing regulatory hurdles with Trump's return to the White

House.

"As an investor, what makes it challenging is figuring out

what the true fundamental value of crypto is," said Saira Malik,

CIO and head of equities and fixed income at Chicago-based asset

manager Nuveen.

Malik said that Nuveen, which has $1.3 trillion of assets

under management, does not have any direct exposure to crypto.

It does, however, invest in companies that could be exposed to

the digital asset.

"There's a lot of technology, a lot of intellectual power

and talent that you need to bring into an organization to really

excel in (crypto)," said Melissa Stolfi, chief operating officer

at Los Angeles-based asset manager TCW Group.

Stolfi said her firm, which manages assets worth a total of

nearly $200 billion, remained focused on enhancing and

maintaining its core business instead.

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