Morgan Stanley has reportedly been working on its crypto initiatives. The financial industry giant is currently watching how the situation with Fidelity unfolds. Fidelity recently entered the crypto markets and is providing digital assets custodial services to users.
Impatience piles up for clients
Sources close to the global investment bank suggest that their clients are growing impatient with the seemingly endless wait for a crypto option. The sources also said that a small percentage of the company’s clients are always inquiring about their foray into digital assets.
Morgan Stanley’s arch rival Goldman Sachs is more open about its investments in cryptocurrency sector. It has already invested in BitGo and Circle while Stanley hasn’t made any significant moves in the sector yet.
As Goldman is already making strides into the crypto ecosystem, the firm will be better positioned to scale up when the regulatory landscape clears up quickly. Morgan Stanley’s clients are therefore unhappy with the turn of events and want the bank to take some action.
Is there some hope for Morgan Stanley?
While it is not doing anything significant in the crypto sector yet, Morgan Stanley’s leadership team is interested in what Fidelity is doing. One of the world’s largest asset manager, Fidelity recently moved into crypto, and Morgan Stanley thinks that emulating its path could be interesting to its ultra-high net worth and large institutional clients.
AbacusJournal’s source noted,
“Are we behind? Yes. That really can’t be disputed at this point. But that won’t be the case once we commit to a particular strategy. We believe we are well positioned when the time is right.”
Another source said that Fidelity’s model of crypto had enamored the leadership. He said that clients want something to be done quickly and see Bitcoin as a type of digital gold. Their ultra-high net worth clients often drop this phrase, which shows that the digital gold narrative for Bitcoin is getting stronger. The source went on to say,
“It is revealing what messaging seems to be making its way into these clients’ hands and sticking. Bakkt and digital gold seem to be moving in lockstep – expect our firm (Morgan Stanley) to play along and once involved market it ($BTC) as such.”
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