Morgan Stanley to allow advisors to offer Bitcoin ETF investments

Morgan Stanley has become the first major Wall Street bank to allow its financial advisors to advise Bitcoin ETF investments. 

Morgan Stanley will now allow its financial advisors to offer Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs to eligible clients starting August 7, according to reporting by CNBC, making it the first major Wall Street bank to do so,

Morgan Stanley has nearly 1500 advisors who can now solicit clients to purchase shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund. This follows the SEC’s approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. 

Only clients with a net worth of at least $1.5 million, an aggressive risk tolerance, and a desire to make speculative investments are suitable for Bitcoin ETF solicitation. The investments are for taxable brokerage accounts, not retirement accounts.

Why does this matter?

This move allows financial advisors to offer Bitcoin ETFs to eligible clients, signaling broader retail Bitcoin adoption. It means more investors are gaining exposure to crypto, and Morgan Stanley is making Bitcoin more accessible to an affluent audience, boosting demand.

“15000 of the best compensated sales people in the world who will harvest the richest families and institutions in the world and put them into Bitcoin. I predict $3 trillion market cap inbound to Bitcoin in under 18 months!” posted investor Gary Cardone on X (fromerly Twitter) in reference to the news.

A spot crypto ETF tracks the price of a specific crypto and invests portfolio funds into that crypto. These funds are traded on public exchanges but generally track a particular crypto. 

Like similar funds, crypto ETFs are on regular stock exchanges, and investors can keep them in their standard brokerage accounts. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly holding the crypto.