Morgan Stanley Allows Wealth Managers to Start Recommending Bitcoin ETFs to Clients

Morgan Stanley, a TradeFi firm, announced adding BlackRock and Fidelity-issued Bitcoin ETFs. The decision was sounded as a big move as the $3.75 trillion consultation firm poured into the crypto market for the first time.

Morgan Stanley Advises Its Financial Advisors to Recommend Crypto ETFs

The firm is touted as the biggest wealth management in the USA and has 15000 financial advisors on the panel. The group advocated in favor of Bitcoin ETF exposure for clients as per the CNBC session.

From 7th August, the wealth management firm will start quoting Bitcoin ETF investment options to accredited investors. The firm is pitching two ETF products for Bitcoin spot, the first one by BlackRock iShares (IBIT) and the second one from Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).

As per the CNBC session on the matter, spot crypto ETF products tracking ETH prices are not approved yet. Thus far, major wirehouses have refrained from embracing crypto ETFs.

Wirehouses are financial consultation firms that include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase. However, on account of the macro-economic factors crypto has remained largely undervalued.

Around $60 billion flowed into spot crypto ETFs since the start of the ongoing year. The biggest chunk was contributed by retail investors and hedge funds. Wirehouses like Morgan Stanley take care of trillions of dollars in AUM and set a standard for new financial products.

Kyle DaCruz of VanEck Terms Crypto ETFs as Game Changer

VanEck director for digital asset product Kyle DaCruz noticed that crypto ETFs are a game changer for the industry. Morgan Stanley is the largest wire house and the advisory panel manages $3.75 trillion and $1 trillion in self-directed accounts.

All of the banking units operated by the firm have $6.2 trillion as per financialplanning.com data. BlackRock IBIT and Fidelity FBTC are counted as bluechip firms.

These firms are responsible for adoption among wirehouses such as MS and independent financial consultants. Meanwhile, leading advisory platforms may undergo a surge of inflows from advisors in spot Bitcoin ETFs as per VanEck digital asset research heard Matthew Sigel.

Amidst the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, a latest Cointelegraph report indicated that the Russian government has legalized Bitcoin and mining. President Vladimir Putin signed the legislation to lower USD reliance to international trade.

The law is set to take effect in November this year. It will allow mining firms to apply for a registration and connect with the national database in order to mine new coins. Individual miners will also be able to participate in mining digital assets without official registration in case of energy consumption.

The new legislature for the mining sector is divided between the Bank of Russia, the Finance Ministry, and a number of other ministries. The bill also has policies on crypto advertisements directed towards Russian investors.

Franklin Templeton Launches Tokenized Money Funds on Arbitrum

UK-based asset management firm Franklin Templeton has received a stamp of approval from layer-02. As of 8th August, Franklin Templeton confirmed the debut of a tokenized money fund on the Arbitrum network.

The firm has dubbed the new product to help bridge the gap between traditional and DeFi. The FOBXX fund was introduced in 2021 and was accessible via Franklin Templeton Benji investments.

Investors have the option to purchase and store tokenized shares from the fund via the Arbitrum blockchain. The fund is also available on more networks such as Stellar and Polygon.

The low-risk yield for investors with high liquid assets such as Treasury-bills and commercial paper are included in the money funds as low-risk yield generators. The FOBXX net asset is valued at $420 million and poised to make yearly returns of 5.25% by June 2024.

The partnership is seen as a big win for Arbitrum since the US regulator views the public ledger to be an approved instrument for financial records. Arbitrum is the most popular layer-2 scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain with a total TVL of $14 billion as per L2Beat. Franklin Templeton has forayed into tokenized real-world assets (RWA) via Arbitrum.