UBS Exploring Bitcoin Offerings for Wealthy Clients: Report

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A Bloomberg report suggests that UBS may soon offer its wealthier clients exposure to digital assets. 

UBS Exploring Crypto Offerings

UBS, the Swiss banking giant with $3.5 trillion in assets under management, is planning to offer crypto products to rich clients, Bloomberg reported Monday. 

The report indicates that the firm is looking into alternative ways to offer exposure to digital assets. An unnamed source said that any crypto investment would represent a small allocation of a portfolio to hedge against price volatility and that they may include “third party investment vehicles.”

Though full details are yet to be confirmed, UBS wouldn’t be the first institutional player in the finance sector to look into crypto this year.

Most recently, Goldman Sachs began trading Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards. In March, the Wall Street firm revealed that it was planning to offer a range of Bitcoin products for affluent clients. Alongside Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and BNY Mellon have pulled similar moves amid growing demand for crypto assets. 

The global cryptocurrency market cap is worth over $2.5 trillion today, with Bitcoin accounting for about 42% of that figure. To date, Bitcoin has been the first crypto asset most banks are interested in. That could soon change, though: now that ETH is trading above $4,000 with several major protocol updates on the horizon, the second crypto has taken the spotlight away from BTC in recent weeks.

Once the likes of UBS catch on, ETH could be next to see a wave of institutional demand. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH, FLI, and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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