It’s so tempting to get into crypto, please give me more slaps in the face from Wall Street!

Listen to what’s being said by Wall Street firms these days, and you might think you’re drinking with a bunch of crypto bros.

Larry Fink , CEO of BlackRock , the world's largest asset manager, told CNBC last month that he is a big believer in Bitcoin .

A few days later, Howard Lutnick , CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, predicted that Bitcoin would rise this year. He also praised stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings.

“It’s fantastic to hold a dollar in token form,” Lutnick, whose firm manages most of Tether’s bond portfolio, said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland.

In 2021, Tether reached a $41 million settlement with U.S. regulators over allegations that it misled investors about whether the stablecoin was fully backed by dollars. Tether did not admit any wrongdoing.

After years of tiptoeing around cryptocurrencies, big financial firms are racing to lure regular investors into these mostly unregulated markets in search of new revenue streams.

The surge was largely sparked by the much-anticipated launch of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in January. Bitcoin supporters hoped the ETF would boost the price of the digital currency by opening it up to a wider group of investors, but many outsiders questioned whether these highly speculative assets would fit into the portfolios of average retail investors.

Some asset managers backing the new ETFs have been talking up their Bitcoin bona fides on social media, posting memes and terms familiar to the crypto community, even though they may not make sense to others (:

For example, many people may not know that January 3rd is the 15th anniversary of the first Bitcoin transaction, but Invesco tells you: The $1.6 trillion asset management company posted on its official X account: Happy Birthday, Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin fever,” investment management firm VanEck tweeted on Jan. 16. The fund manager later asked Merriam-Webster’s social media account why they didn’t include “HODL,” a term familiar to bitcoin investors that means never selling your holdings, no matter how the price fluctuates.

Then there’s Franklin Templeton, the 77-year-old asset manager named after Benjamin Franklin because he “embodied the ideals of frugality and prudence,” according to its website. In January, the firm changed its official X avatar to give the American founding father a laser eye, a popular meme among bitcoin bulls.

“In crypto, speculation is a feature, not a bug,” Franklin Templeton tweeted on Jan. 17 , when the firm’s digital assets team, which manages the X account, sent out several tweets in a roughly 90-minute period, including one that cited the “tremendous potential” of some blockchain networks and posted a meme that appeared to support adding Bitcoin to a traditional 60/40 stock and bond portfolio.

“We always strive to stay fresh and on trend,” said Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton.

The company later removed the laser eyes from Benjamin Franklin’s head and removed a cryptocurrency-themed post that included a meme with an image of former WWE owner Vince McMahon after a former employee filed a lawsuit accusing him of sex trafficking. McMahon has denied the allegations. A Franklin Templeton spokesperson said: “Given the allegations at the time, we felt that removing the tweet was the most appropriate course of action.”

Some cryptocurrency skeptics say Wall Street’s embrace of bitcoin rings hollow, calling it a thinly veiled attempt to profit from the emerging asset class.

“ Fee income is the game that Wall Street is best at, and this is a new opportunity to earn fees,” said Lee Reiners, an economics lecturer at Duke University.

To be sure, some of the biggest players in traditional finance remain cautious. Vanguard Group has declined to offer access to bitcoin ETFs through its brokerage platform, saying they don’t fit with its philosophy of supporting long-term buy-and-hold investing. And Jamie Dimon , CEO of JPMorgan Chase , remains personally skeptical of bitcoin, even though the bank has agreed to service BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF trading.

On January 17, Dimon told CNBC that Bitcoin is a useless "pet rock." "My personal advice is don't get involved in it, but I don't want to force any of you on what to do. This is a free country."

There are risks for regulated financial firms that get too enthusiastic about marketing cryptocurrencies.

Last month, FINRA released the results of its 2022 review of more than 500 crypto-related communications from 11 brokerage firms. Finra said more than 70% of the messages may have violated Finra’s rules prohibiting false or exaggerated communications with the public.

Not long ago, the crypto community viewed Wall Street as its ideological opposite.

Bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, originally envisioned his invention as a payment method that didn't rely on banks, and many early Bitcoin holders were libertarians bent on creating a financial system free from government control. In turn, most financial firms have distanced themselves from the unwieldy world of digital currencies.

Now, just as haute couture embraced rebellious subcultures like punk and grunge, the financial industry is hopping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.

“Bitcoin could help prevent governments from devaluing your money,” VanEck recently said in a TV ad for its new Bitcoin ETF. CEO Jan van Eck said in an interview that the company has a long history of providing products that help investors protect against inflation.