Morgan Stanley (NASDAQ: MS), one of the largest investment banks and wealth managers in the world, has reportedly told its financial advisors that the company is broadening access to digital asset investments to all clients and account types, starting October 15.
According to a CNBC report, Morgan Stanley told its advisors that they will be able to offer digital asset funds to clients with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401ks (workplace pensions). Previously, the option was limited to high-net-worth investors with at least $1.5 million in assets and an aggressive risk tolerance, i.e., someone willing to risk losing money to get potentially better results.
The firm said it would rely on an automated monitoring process to ensure that clients aren’t overly concentrated in a digital assets class, which it still considers “volatile.”
The announcement from the United States-based investment giant is in keeping with the digital asset sectors’ increasing move toward the mainstream under President Donald Trump, who has spearheaded a shift in perception toward ‘crypto’—in the U.S. and abroad—since his inauguration in January.
The move is also not the first sign that Morgan Stanley, one of the traditional finance (TradFi) elites, has shown interest in getting on board with Trump’s pro-crypto agenda. In September, it was revealed that the firm was a few months away from offering BTC trading through its E-Trade platform, with the service said to be planned for early 2026.
This was followed in early October by Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee (GIC) featuring digital assets in its special wealth management report. Specifically, it recommended that portfolio managers take a ‘conservative’ approach to the asset class and endorsed allocations of up to 4%.
The report was the latest in a series issued by the GIC addressing current topics and themes. In the case of the October 1 publication, it focused on “Asset Allocation Considerations for Cryptocurrencies.”
“Cryptocurrency has attracted significant attention in recent years, given its outsized returns, elevated volatility, growth to $4 trillion in market capitalization and increased support from the Trump administration and Congress,” said the report.
The GIC outlined what percentage of multi-asset portfolios it recommended should be allocated to cryptocurrency-based different risk profiles: for ‘pure wealth conservation’ and/or ‘income,’ it recommended an allocation of zero; for ‘balanced growth’ it recommended 2%; for ‘market growth’ it recommended 3%; and for ‘opportunistic growth’ it recommended 4%.
As part of the justification for its increasing engagement with the digital asset market, the GIC said that it considered cryptocurrency “a speculative and increasingly popular asset class that many investors, but not all, will seek to explore.”
However, it did also caveat its commentary on digital assets by saying that its primary focus was BTC, which it considers “a scarce asset, akin to digital gold.”
Watch: Richard Baker on engineering a smarter financial world with blockchain
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Source: https://coingeek.com/morgan-stanley-lets-all-clients-tap-into-digital-assets/
