Last week, Morgan Stanley
MS made the move after wealthy clients requested exposure to the largest crypto. The bank noted Bitcoin could be suitable for investors with "an aggressive risk tolerance" who have at least $2 million in assets held by the firm. For qualified accredited U.S. investors, MS is limiting Bitcoin investments to 2.5% of net worth. Two funds offered are from Galaxy Digital, a crypto firm founded by Mike Novogratz, and the third is a joint venture from asset manager FS Investments and NYDIG. MS clients reportedly can make investments as soon as next month, after financial advisors complete training related to the new offerings.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
First Trust Advisors and SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund managed by Anthony Scaramucci, applied to create a new Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). In an S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firms applied to offer the First Trust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF Trust. First Advisor would be the advisor to the ETF, while SkyBridge would be the sub-advisor. Shares would trade on NYSE Arca. The new Bitcoin ETF application came after WisdomTree filed in March, NYDIG in February, Valkyrie in January, and VanEck in December 2020. Grayscale also could be prepping for an ETF product. The crypto asset manager is rumored to be considering applying for a new one or converting its existing Bitcoin Trust
Coinbase has decided to delay its highly anticipated public offering until April after its plan for a March listing "slipped," according to a Bloomberg report Saturday citing people familiar. The report gave no reason for the delay, but it noted the SEC has been reviewing the San Francisco-based exchange's plan for a direct listing. The major U.S. exchange formally unveiled its plans to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in January and last week registered for as many as 114.9 million shares to be traded. Coinbase Class A shares will debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "COIN." The report of a delay came after Coinbase settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pay $6.5 million over allegations the exchange "self-traded" digital assets between 2015 and 2018. It is unclear if the settlement pushed back the timeline for Coinbase.
Crypto prices dipped to $1.773 trillion this week, pulling back after Bitcoin broke $60,000. For the majors, Cardano (ADA) and XRP jumped, while Bitcoin and Litecoin (LTC) fell. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Theta Fuel (TFUEL), down 19%, Chiliz (CHZ), down 17%, and Flow (FLOW), down 15%. The biggest gainers were MVL, up a whopping 583%, VeThor Token (VTHO), up 157%, and Harmony (ONE), up 156%. Next week traders will watch if Bitcoin notches another record high.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.
- 1. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/bitcoin-morgan-stanley-is-the-first-big-us-bank-to-offer-wealthy-clients-access-to-bitcoin-funds.html
- 2. https://www.coindesk.com/first-advisor-scaramucci-led-skybridge-team-up-to-file-for-bitcoin-etf
- 3. https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-delays-highly-anticipated-direct-listing-to-april-report