Institutions continue to enter Bitcoin: Morgan Stanley becomes the first Wall Street bank to offer a Bitcoin fund

According to CNBC, Morgan Stanley will become the first major bank in the United States to offer Bitcoin funds to wealth management users. This is seen as an important step for Wall Street to accept Bitcoin as an asset class.
Morgan Stanley said in an internal memo sent to financial advisors on Wednesday that it is launching three funds that can own Bitcoin to clients. Clients are expected to be able to invest as early as next month after the bank's financial advisors complete training courses related to the new products.
People familiar with the matter explained that this was a decision made by Morgan Stanley after clients requested cryptocurrency exposure, and some clients may have already begun transferring funds to Coinbase.
It is reported that of the three funds, two are from the crypto company Galaxy Digital, and the other is from the asset management company FS Investments and the Bitcoin company NYDIG. The minimum investment amount for Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP and FS NYDIG Select Fund is $25,000, while the minimum investment amount for Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP is $5 million.
The current threshold for investing in these ETFs is quite high. These cryptocurrency funds are only available to clients with an "aggressive" risk tolerance and at least $2 million in assets managed by Morgan Stanley. The bank's wealth division manages $4 trillion for high-net-worth individuals and families. Institutional investors need at least $5 million in bank assets to qualify for Bitcoin investment.
Moreover, in order to avoid the launch of new funds stimulating customers to buy in large quantities, both types of customers must have opened an account with the bank for 6 months or more before they can invest in the above-mentioned Bitcoin ETF. Morgan Stanley also limits Bitcoin investment to 2.5% of total net assets.
Morgan Stanley’s decision to offer Bitcoin exposure to wealth management clients is seen as following in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, which previously decided to restart its cryptocurrency trading desk. But Morgan Stanley is once again ahead of the curve as it is the only investment bank to offer cryptocurrency exposure to wealth management clients. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America’s wealth management divisions do not currently offer Bitcoin exposure.
It is worth mentioning that Meitu also issued an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the 17th that its wholly-owned subsidiary Miracle Vision purchased US$28.4 million worth of Ethereum and US$21.6 million worth of Bitcoin on the open market on March 17, 2021. Combined with previously disclosed data, Meitu has purchased approximately US$90 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
In addition, Visa's chief information officer Al Kelly said in an interview with Fortune magazine that cryptocurrencies could become mainstream within five years and that Visa is working on developing new payment methods and technologies for purchasing Bitcoin. He said:
“We are trying to do two things: enable bitcoin purchases on Visa and work with some bitcoin wallets to allow conversion of bitcoin into fiat currency.”
This will help global buyers buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.