According to Blockworks, Wells Fargo and Bank of America's Merrill have started offering bitcoin ETFs to some of their wealth management clients. This move follows brokerage giants Fidelity and Charles Schwab, who began providing investors access to bitcoin ETFs after their launch on January 11. In contrast, Vanguard has deemed the investment case for cryptocurrencies as weak and has blocked users of its brokerage platform from buying and selling the funds.
Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Services, expects bitcoin ETFs to eventually become widely available from most registered investment advisers (RIAs) and brokerage firms. However, he noted that wirehouses, such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo, are likely to be slower in offering such funds due to their bureaucratic nature. On Wednesday, CoinDesk reported that Morgan Stanley was exploring the possibility of offering bitcoin ETFs to some customers.
In January, Wells Fargo Advisors began offering bitcoin ETFs to customers, but clients specifically had to seek out these products, according to a report from Investment News. Bitcoin ETFs have experienced record numbers this week, with new highs for both trade volume and net inflows as bitcoin's price hovers around $60,000. The strong investor demand for these products has convinced some firms of the need to offer them to their clients, Edelman noted.
