Morgan Stanley aims to offer wealthy clients the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin funds. It will be the first major US bank to do so, CNBC reported on Wednesday.
Investment bank MS, + 1.30%, told financial advisors in an internal memo that it would give wealth management clients access to three Bitcoin-related funds, according to the report, which named people with direct knowledge of the matter. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the report.
Bitcoin bulls have argued that wider institutional and commercial adoption of cryptocurrencies would warrant a sustained rise in the price of the volatile digital asset, which hit an all-time high of over $ 60,000 last weekend. Bitcoin BTCUSD, + 2.68%, was lower in morning trading following the report, but rose in the afternoon and rose as stocks rose – and the dollar fell – after the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell took a dovish tone had posted the conclusion of a two-day political meeting. Bitcoin rose 2.2% to $ 57,615 in the late afternoon.
According to the report, two of the funds on offer come from Galaxy Digital, a crypto firm founded by veteran hedge fund manager Michael Novograts. The third is a joint effort by asset manager FS Investments and bitcoin company NYDIG.
Bitcoin’s critics claim that so-called cryptocurrencies remain largely a bubble phenomenon. Volatile price fluctuations make it impractical to use as currency or store of value.
Proponents have long argued that the digital assets are a hedge against the devaluation of fiat currencies and that the underlying blockchain technology has tremendous appeal in terms of confidentiality and 24/7 access.
And bitcoin bulls hailed the rising institutional interest of Tesla Inc. TSLA with + 2.65%.
In a broader sense, Bitcoin’s surge was tied to gaining institutional interest from Tesla Inc. TSLA (-1.82%), which put $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins in cash earlier this year.
PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, + 0.73% in November, opened its cryptocurrency platform after a closer rollout to all US customers. Several high profile Wall Street players, including Stanley Druckermiller and Paul Tudor Jones, have chosen Bitcoin. And some skeptics, like Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management, have softened their tone, acknowledging that the jury is ignorant of Bitcoin’s long-term viability.
