Morgan Stanley to Allow Advisers to Recommend Bitcoin ETFs Starting August 7

Morgan Stanley to Allow Advisers to Recommend Bitcoin ETFs Starting August 7

Morgan Stanley, the largest wealth management firm in the United States, is set to allow its 15,000 financial advisers to recommend Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to clients, as reported by CNBC.

Beginning on August 7, Morgan Stanley advisers will be able to guide eligible clients towards investing in two specific Bitcoin ETFs — BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). According to CNBC, other spot crypto ETFs, such as the newly launched Ether ETFs, have not yet received approval.

This development marks a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency industry. Historically, major financial advisory firms, commonly referred to as wirehouses, have been reluctant to embrace spot crypto ETFs. In addition to Morgan Stanley, other prominent wirehouses include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

Despite substantial growth in valuations, the cryptocurrency market has struggled to expand beyond its core audience. Of the approximately $60 billion invested in spot crypto ETFs in 2024, the majority has come from crypto-native retail investors and hedge funds.

Wirehouses, which manage trillions of dollars in assets, have set a high bar for adopting new financial products. Securing a foothold in this segment with crypto ETFs is seen as a “game changer,” according to Kyle DaCruz, director of digital assets product at VanEck, an asset manager that sponsors crypto ETFs, in an interview with Cointelegraph.

Morgan Stanley stands out as the largest among the wirehouses. Its advisory network oversees approximately $3.75 trillion in assets, including $1 trillion in self-directed client accounts. Across all its banking divisions, Morgan Stanley manages $6.2 trillion in assets, as noted by financialplanning.com.

BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC are quickly establishing themselves as top choices among Bitcoin ETFs. Their adoption is growing not only within wirehouses like Morgan Stanley but also among independent financial advisers, according to Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at VettaFi, a fund research firm, in a statement to Cointelegraph.

The increasing acceptance of these ETFs by leading advisory platforms could lead to significant inflows from financial advisers into spot Bitcoin ETFs, Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, told Cointelegraph.