Morgan Stanley mulls allowing brokers to recommend Bitcoin ETFs

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Morgan Stanley is considering allowing its 15,000 brokers to recommend Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to clients, reported AdvisorHub on April 24.

The financial institution had initially approved Bitcoin ETF purchases following regulatory approval earlier this year. However, clients had to proactively request these products from advisors.

Now, Morgan Stanley is weighing a shift to let brokers actively promote Bitcoin ETFs, which may result to an increase in demand but also opens the firm to more legal risks. The company is establishing “guardrails” for solicited crypto ETF purchases, including risk tolerance checks and trading limits.

An unnamed Morgan Stanley executive reportedly said that the firm is “going to make sure that we’re very careful about it,” adding that the goal behind the initiative is to serve and provide access to as many investors as possible.

“We are going to make sure everybody has access to it. We just want to do it in a controlled way,” the exec stated.

The executive(s) did not provide a timeline for finalizing the policy review.

Market analysts see this as favorable for crypto, contrasting it with Morgan Stanley’s past reserved stance. Thomas Fahrer, Apollo Sats co-founder, said: “This is a big change from their ‘if they ask’ approach.”

According to Farside Investors, Bitcoin spot ETFs have attracted $12.29 billion in net inflows and manage over $53 billion in assets. However, recent data shows declining inflows. CryptoSlate reported BlackRock’s ETF saw no daily inflow for the first time on April 24.

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