Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest asset managers, informed its financial advisors that all clients will be able to invest in cryptocurrency funds from October 15.
Morgan Stanley and cryptocurrencies for the masses
Advisors will be able to offer cryptocurrency funds to clients with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) plans (equivalents of Employee Capital Plans), which is a significant change from the company’s previous policy, which limited access to this type of products – only wealthy investors with assets exceeding USD 1.5 million and an aggressive profile could invest capital in them. risk.
The move could free up millions of dollars currently tied up in other assets. These may hit the cryptocurrency market.
What scale are we talking about? According to the Investment Company Institute’s latest quarterly report, as of June 30, U.S. retirement assets were worth approximately $45.8 trillion, of which approximately $18 trillion was invested in IRAs and approximately $9.3 trillion in 401(k) plans.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division employs approximately 16,000 financial advisors and manages approximately $6.2 trillion in assets. It serves over 19 million customers (data from the company’s annual letter to shareholders for 2025).
ETFs for everyone!
However, Morgan Stanley is to limit its offering: advisers can only offer clients bitcoin funds managed by BlackRock and Fidelity. However, the institution monitors the market for other cryptocurrency products, so it may open up to new products.
All this is the result of Donald Trump’s decision at the beginning of August. The US president then signed an executive order that allows cryptocurrencies to be added to US 401(k) retirement funds. This changes the rules of the game in the long term, but it is worth remembering that the process of “transferring” capital to this market will take a long time. Each fund that operates a 401(k) can decide its own risk strategy. Trump has given these types of companies a new opportunity to invest, but he will not force them to invest their capital in cryptocurrencies. Additionally, advisors themselves will have to convince clients to invest in BTC or ETH ETFs.
