- Multinational investment banking giant Morgan Stanley has announced that it is kick-starting access to three funds that will meet clients’ BTC needs amidst growing interest.
- Morgan Stanley, in an internal memo, said access to these funds will only be available to investors who have at least $2 million in Morgan Stanley. For investment firms, the figure is $5 million.
- The funds offered by Morgan Stanley are from Galaxy Digital and a joint venture between FS Investments and NYDIG.
- This makes Morgan Stanley the first major U.S bank to offer a Bitcoin fund.
Morgan Stanley has announced its intention to provide its wealth management clients access to Bitcoin funds as a mode of diversifying their investment portfolio.
This comes on the heels of the recent bull run of the cryptocurrency market with the market capitalization of the entire industry surpassing $1.75 trillion and Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin reaching their all-time highs of $61,683.86, $2036.29 and $0.08495 respectively.
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An internal memo provided by the multinational investment bank outlined certain restrictions for the access to Bitcoin funds as the bank considers it for persons with an “aggressive risk tolerance.”
Morgan Stanley Provides Clients Access To Bitcoin Holders
Morgan Stanley has responded to bull run in the cryptocurrency market and has offered three funds to its clientele. Two funds are currently operated under Galaxy Digital, founded by Mike Novogratz, an outspoken supporter of Bitcoin.
The third fund was born as a result of the partnership between FS Investments and NYDIG, a leading tech and financial firm dedicated to Bitcoin. The funds are expected to be launched to Morgan Stanley’s clientele in early April.
Details of the Bitcoin Fund
While this is exciting news for believers in Bitcoin, access to the funds has been heavily restricted by the $4 trillion investment bank.
Currently, only individuals that have at least $2 million in assets with the bank and investment firms with $5million in assets are able to take part in new stakes.
In both situations, accounts must be at least 6 months old to qualify. Even when granted access to the funds, Morgan Stanley puts a cap on the amount of Bitcoin investments at up to 2.5%.
On the Flipside
- India’s proposed ban on the possession, trading, transfer, and mining of all private virtual currencies could affect Tesla’s India Foray
- While pursuing the ban, the country is also trying to woo foreign investors and companies such as Tesla Inc. already offering cheaper production costs
- Tesla, and its founder Elon Musk, have backed Bitcoin and cryptos, seeing its prospect for the future
Increased Interest From Wall Street
2021 has been a spectacular year for Bitcoin as it shattered previous heights and reached a market capitalization of over $1.7 trillion, occupying over 60% of the market share of all cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $61,683 in March 2021, forcing Wall Street and huge corporations to pay attention to the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
In February, automobile giants Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin while MicroStrategy increased their holdings of Bitcoin to around $91,064 after it announced that it had bought $10 million worth of Bitcoin.
Payment giants like MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Square have taken positive steps to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their services.
Major Wall Street players like BNY Mellon, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are all taking frantic steps to invest in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency industry. All these confirm Bitcoin’s increasing popularity and its stake in the future of finance.
