Morgan Stanley is broadening access to crypto investments to clients and allowing these investments in any account, including retirement accounts. According to a CNBC report on Friday, the firm gave the green light to its financial advisors to begin offering the products without any constraints. Starting Oct. 15, advisors will be able to pitch crypto funds to any client.
Morgan Stanley has been one of the more pro-crypto asset management firms in the past couple of years. 4 years ago, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs began offering bitcoin funds to their wealthy clients. Back in September, the firm also said it was close to offering crypto trading to its customers through E-Trade. The move to remove the restriction on bitcoin and crypto investments, hence, unlocks these capabilities for Morgan Stanley customers.
Over the past 20 years, Morgan Stanley has become a staple in banking and asset management, amassing $8.2 trillion in client assets across its wealth and investment management operations. In recent years, the bank has repeatedly shown it is keen to defend its position in crypto amid the rise of platforms, including Coinbase and Robinhood. With the crypto industry’s surge throughout the 2020s, Morgan Stanley hasn’t fallen behind, instead welcoming the growing alternative finance with open arms.
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The committee “considers cryptocurrency as a speculative and increasingly popular asset class that many investors, but not all, will seek to explore,” Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer for wealth management at the firm, said in an Oct. 1 report.
“Offering clients the ability to trade crypto is the tip of the iceberg,” Jedd Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley, also said earlier this month. “We see immense power in the cryptocurrency space, not just with crypto as an investment for our clients, but also around DLT and tokenization more broadly,” he added.