In brief
- Morgan Stanley is allowing certain clients access to three Bitcoin funds.
- Clients will need to meet a $2 million threshold to get involved.
Morgan Stanely will allow certain clients access to Bitcoin funds, CNBC has reported and Decrypt has confirmed.
The bank shared the news with its wealth managers Wednesday morning.
There are three funds on offer: two from billionaire Mike Novogratz’s crypto firm, Galaxy Digital, and a third that’s a joint effort from NYDIG and FS Investments.
The minimum investments for Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP and Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP are $25,000 and $5 million, respectively, and the minimum for the FS NYDIG Select Fund is $25,000—but Morgan Stanley is only allowing access to clients with at least $2 million in the bank.
The bank is also limiting investments to 2.5% of a client’s net worth.
More major banks have been taking notice of crypto over the past six months. A year ago, the price of Bitcoin dropped as low as $4,000. Since then, Bitcoin has ballooned; it hit a new all-time high of $61,000 on Saturday, and is now sitting around $55,000.
BlackRock’s CIO has said the asset manager is “dabbling” in potential Bitcoin offerings, and Goldman Sachs has plans to reopen its cryptocurrency trading desk this week and resume dealing in Bitcoin futures.
JP Morgan has also established a “cryptocurrency exposure basket,” which allows investors to pick up notes tied to stocks from crypto-hungry companies like MicroStrategy and Square.
At the end of last year, Morgan Stanley bought a 10% stake in MicroStrategy, which holds over $5 billion in Bitcoin.