Morgan Stanley has informed its financial advisors that it will allow them to offer Bitcoin ETFs to qualified clients.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, a recent report highlighted,
“The firm’s 15,000 or so financial advisors can solicit eligible clients to purchase shares of two exchange-traded Bitcoin funds starting Wednesday [August 7].”
Notably, the two funds are BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust [IBIT] and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund [FBTC].
The aforementioned move makes Morgan Stanley stand out from the rest of the traditional finance institutions on Wall Street.
Morgan Stanley has taken this call to cater to the “demand” from clients and “in an attempt to follow an evolving marketplace for digital assets.”
That being said, the bank has decided to tread on a cautious path. Only clients with a net worth of at least $1.5 million, an “aggressive” risk tolerance, and the “desire” to make speculative investments will be eligible for BTC ETF solicitation.
The bank will also keep an eye on clients’ crypto holdings to ensure they don’t end up with “excessive exposure” to the volatile asset class.
The sources further highlighted,
“The investments are for taxable brokerage accounts, not retirement accounts.”
The banking giant is also keenly observing the Ether ETF market. Nevertheless, it has not yet taken a call on whether it would provide access to those funds.
Of late, companies have been accommodating crypto-centric demands of their clients. As reported recently by blocmates this week, Ferrari started accepting crypto payments for its luxury sports cars from its European dealer network.
Affluent customers had time and again asked the company to integrate the crypto payment option. Ferrari did heed their requests and first implemented this scheme in the US in Q4 2023, and now supplemented it with the EU integration.
