Morgan Stanley Opens Crypto Investing to All Wealth Clients
All Morgan Stanley client accounts, including retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs), are now eligible to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Starting Oct. 15, all wealth management clients with an account at Morgan Stanley, regardless of risk profile, are allowed to invest in the digital assets. Morgan Stanley confirmed the news to CNBC on Oct. 10, the same day it would inform its financial advisors of the update.
Per CNBC, Morgan Stanley advisors will only be able to pitch bitcoin funds from BlackRock and Fidelity, but are considering incorporating additional funds and crypto types. Clients can request to be added to any listed crypto exchange-traded product, the news outlet reported.
Morgan Stanley previously only offered crypto investing to clients in taxable brokerage accounts with aggressive risk tolerances and who held $1.5 million or more in assets.
The move is a bold one for the investment goliath, as more firms move to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s August executive order that directs federal agencies, like the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to reexamine regulation with alternative funds in 401(k) plans. In an Oct. 1 report by its Global Investment Committee, Morgan Stanley described the alternative investment as a “speculative and increasingly popular asset class that many investors, but not all, will seek to explore.”
“Cryptocurrency has attracted significant attention in recent years, given its outsized returns, elevated volatility, growth to $4 trillion in market capitalization and increased support from the Trump administration and Congress,” Morgan Stanley’s report added.
However, the Global Investment Committee in the report recommended advisors take a “conservative approach” when investing clients into crypto, with a maximum allocation of 4% based on factors including “wealth conservation and income portfolios,” and “opportunistic growth portfolios.”
The investment firm is also set to offer trading in bitcoin, ether, and solana funds through its E-Trade platform in early 2026, in a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash.
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with nearly a decade of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado.
