Cryptocurrencies to survive despite massive sell-off - Allianz's El-Erian

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies, in the midst of a massive sell-off, will survive but will remain part of the commodity space, and not as a separate asset class, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said on Tuesday.

In a fireside chat at a Coindesk conference called Consensus: Invest in New York, El-Erian said the fact that more institutional investors are getting into various crypto projects, even as retail investors have shied away because of the price declines, was a positive sign for the market.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)