Morgan Stanley told its advisors they can solicit eligible clients to purchase shares in two Bitcoin ETFs, according to a report from CNBC.
Morgan Stanley is the first wirehouse to allow advisors to actively push the investments. Up to now, some wirehouses and IBDs have allowed qualfied advisors to offer approved ETFs to some clients with brokerage accounts, but only if the clients requested it, stopping short of solicitation.
A source with knowledge of Morgan Stanley’s policies confirmed the accuracy of the CNBC report to WealthManagement.com.
Getting products approved on wirehouse platforms is an “extremely arduous task,” according to Neil Bathon, founder and partner at FUSE Research Network. “There are all kinds of groups—due diligence, compliance, business management, field oversight, etc.—within Morgan Stanley that have to get comfortable with the notion that the investment strategy will deliver as promised. And crypto/bitcoin is still a mysterious—and volatile—asset class to many investors.”
According to the report, Morgan Stanley will allow its 15,000 brokers to sell BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, two of the 11 spot bitcoin ETFs that the SEC approved earlier this year. Overall, advisors have been cautious about using the products from the start, either barring their use or only allowing them to be sold at a client’s request after advisors have completed the required training on the usage of spot Bitcoin ETFs. They have taken the same stance on recently launched spot Ethereum ETFs.
The report added that Morgan Stanley made the move in response to “demand from clients” and in “an attempt to follow an evolving marketplace for digital assets.”
According to sources cited by CNBC, only clients with a net worth of $1.5 million who have an “aggressive risk tolerance” and the “desire to make speculative investments” are suitable for bitcoin ETF solicitation. Bitcoin ETFs are for clients with taxable brokerage accounts, not retirement accounts.
Bathon added that he would not be surprised if other wirehouses followed Morgan Stanley’s lead, but Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all confirmed to CNBC they have not changed their previous policies barring their advisors from pitching them.
“Morgan Stanley is one of the more dominant firms in wealth management so I think competing firms will absolutely follow suit—and all in all likelihood happy that Morgan Stanley stepped into a market leadership role as it relates to Bitcoin,” Bathon said.
The price of Bitcoin is up 35% since the ETFs began trading Jan. 11.