Up to this point, wealth management businesses have only facilitated trades if customers specifically requested exposure to these new spot crypto funds.
Of Morgan Stanley's $1.5 trillion in assets under management, the bank disclosed in a May 13F filing that it held around $270 million in spot bitcoin ETFs.
The expectation is that other wirehouses and asset managers, who have been on the sidelines performing in-house due diligence on spot crypto ETFs, might feel the pressure to soon follow Morgan Stanley's lead.
The spot ether ETFs, which launched less than three weeks ago, have seen relatively tepid flows compared to the blockbuster launch of spot bitcoin ETFs in January.
The bitcoin funds collectively hold $54.30 billion in assets under management, versus $7.25 billion across the spot ether funds.
Persons:
Morgan Stanley, Morgan, Morgan Stanley's
Organizations:
BlackRock, Fidelity
Locations:
bitcoin, Japan, lockstep