Morgan Stanley Opens Spot Bitcoin ETF Access

Bitcoin

Morgan Stanley will be one of the first major brokerage platforms to allow wealth advisors to start using spot Bitcoin ETFs for wealthier clients.

The New York-based financial services conglomerate confirmed reports that its brokerage platform’s 15,000 financial advisors will be able to begin using select Bitcoin ETFs for clients with at least $1.5 million in assets starting this week.

The decision comes eight months after the first spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January and less than a month after the spot Ethereum ETFs launched.

The timing of the Morgan Stanley decision also comes amid a global correction that has seen Bitcoin’s price drop nearly 20% in the past week, with most of the declines coming after the U.S. Labor Department reported weak employment data on Friday, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin was recently trading at around $54,500.

Morgan Stanley confirmed that of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs currently on the market, 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).

Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts see Morgan Stanley’s move as inevitable and the start of a trend toward wider access and adoption.

“Cryptocurrency continues to enter the mainstream,” said Ric Edelman, founder of the Council of Digital Assets Finance Professionals.

“Morgan Stanley is the first of the major brokerages, and others will soon follow,” he added. “In a few years, crypto allocations will become routine in client portfolios, and the sooner clients add them, the more wealth they will create.”

Bitcoin Buying Opportunity?

“The current broad sell-off in financial markets creates an excellent buying opportunity across all asset classes, including crypto, and smart advisors and investors will take advantage of it,” Edelman said of the sudden price correction.

Svetlin Krastev, founder of Black Sea Gold Advisors in Kingston, New York, called the Morgan Stanley news “the next step in the natural progression of bitcoin’s mass adoption as part of everyone’s portfolio.”

“In my view, bitcoin is diversifying because it has low correlation to 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, suggested that Morgan Stanley is taking action to stay ahead of its competitors in the fast-growing cryptocurrency sector.

“I’m sure the number of calls advisors are getting on crypto is what led to this decision,” he said. “The adoption by these advisors will lead to a rally for bitcoin, and I think we’ll see a rally. You have to think about how much money these institutions are managing.”

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