Morgan Stanley will be among the first major brokerage platforms to allow its wealth advisors to start using spot bitcoin ETFs for wealthier clients.
The New York-based financial services conglomerate confirmed reports that the brokerage platform’s 15,000 financial advisors will be able to start using select bitcoin ETFs for clients with at least $1.5 million worth of assets beginning this week.
The decision comes eight months after the January debut of the first spot bitcoin ETFs and less than a month after the debut of spot Ethereum ETFs.
The timing of the Morgan Stanley decision also comes in the middle of a global correction across financial markets that has sent the price of bitcoin plummeting by nearly 20% over the past week, with the bulk of the declines occurring after the U.S. Labor reported soft jobs data on Friday, according tor CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin was recently trading at about $54,500.
Morgan Stanley confirmed that of the 11 spot bitcoin ETFs currently available, it will only allow its advisors to use the $11.8 billion Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the $22.6 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts view the move by Morgan Stanley as inevitable and the start of a trend toward wider access and adoption.
“The mainstreaming of crypto continues,” said Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals.
“Morgan Stanley is the first of the major wirehouses and they will be soon followed by all the others,” he added. “Within a few years, crypto allocations will be routine in client portfolios, and the sooner clients add them the more wealth they will create.”
Bitcoin Buying Opportunity?
Regarding the sudden price correction, Edelman said, “The current broad selloff in the financial markets is creating an excellent buying opportunity in all asset classes, including crypto, and smart advisors and investors will take advantage of this.”
Svetlin Krastev, founder of Black Sea Gold Advisors in Kingston, N.Y., described the Morgan Stanley news as “just the next step in the natural progression of the mass adoption of bitcoin as part of everyone’s portfolio.”
“My view is that bitcoin is the diversifier because it has low correlation with other assets,” he added. “It is very volatile but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in a normal allocation.”
John Bovard, owner of Incline Wealth Advisors in Cincinnati, Ohio, speculated that Morgan Stanley is moving to stay ahead of competitors in the fast-moving crypto space.
“I’m sure the number of calls advisors typically get on crypto probably led to this decision,” he said. “The adoption by these advisors will lead to a turnaround for bitcoin and I think we’ll see a rally. You have to think about how much money these institutions manage.”
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