Morgan Stanley Is Finally Unleashing Its Army To Sell Bitcoin ETFs

After months of anticipation, the first of the most powerful banks is finally green-lighting wealth advisors to sell Bitcoin ETFs to clients.

On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley lifted the gate on letting its 15,000 investment advisors sell Bitcoin ETFs to clients. With trillions of dollars in portfolio holdings among the largest banks now in play, action in the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are sure to get interesting.

According to Pantera Capital's Cosmo Jiang, the shot of the starting gun is largely flying under the radar.

"I think this has totally gone unnoticed by the market," Jiang told Coinage in a new interview above. "The Bitcoin ETFs have drawn in quite a lot of flows year-to-date, but ... if you talk to the large issuers, they'll tell you they've only turned on you call it 10 to 15% of their distribution."

Now, as Morgan Stanley becomes the first of the large banks to set their massive wealth management teams lose on clients, that distribution is set to rise, potentially opening Bitcoin and Ethereum up to trillions of dollars in portfolio holdings.

"That is where a lot of the capital exists," Jiang said. "So I think this unlocking is getting from 10 to 15 points of distribution to 100 points of distribution eventually and all these wirehouses [are] a huge piece of that and so them turning it on ... is a massive deal."

Last month at the Bitcoin Conference, Bloomberg's James Seyffart had asked BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick when he thought the large banks might open the flood gates. He had expected the fourth quarter.

"Certainly this year is likely," he said.

Because of the inflows to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, Jiang pointed out that the phase of a usual crypto bull cycle where Bitcoin extends its dominance has actually extended a bit beyond his expectations. Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market expanded to 57% this week — the highest level since early 2021. In their latest blockchain letter, Pantera laid out why altcoin season could be approaching.

"I do think we're at a point where uh, we are closer certainly to the to longer tail tokens taking off and really outperforming," Jiang said. "I'm hopeful that these green shoots on the altcoins will start to bear fruit in the form of better fundamentals, which should translate to price action."

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