Cryptocurrency enthusiast Andrew P. (@AP_Abacus) posted on X platform that Morgan Stanley may hope to beat UBS to become the first large institution to fully support Bitcoin (spot) ETF products.
Andrew quoted an internal memo from Morgan Stanley saying that the bank "may preempt UBS" to announce its support for Bitcoin ETF products a few days earlier. He also mentioned that major banks around the world have been actively discussing the addition of Bitcoin ETF products, seeing it as a competition.
In response, Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, commented that according to reliable sources, neither Morgan Stanley nor UBS has added Bitcoin ETF products. Balchunas suggested that "it is still waiting, in a deadlock in the compliance game, waiting for one of them to take the lead and then provide cover for others. Therefore, it may be that multiple banks will act almost at the same time."
Andrew previously claimed that UBS plans to add Bitcoin ETF to its platform next week or between April 8 and April 12.
Cointelegraph has contacted Morgan Stanley and UBS for comment on the possibility of supporting Bitcoin spot ETF products on their platforms, but the two banks have not responded as of press time. (Cointelegraph)
Earlier, CoinDesk quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that UBS will allow some customers to trade Bitcoin spot ETFs under certain conditions, but the conditions include that UBS cannot solicit transactions and accounts with low risk tolerance cannot participate in such transactions.
In addition, two people familiar with the matter revealed that Morgan Stanley is conducting due diligence on whether to add Bitcoin spot ETF products to its brokerage platform.
One of the people familiar with the matter said that Morgan Stanley has been evaluating offering Bitcoin spot ETFs to customers since the U.S. SEC approved the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs in January this year. It is not clear what products Morgan Stanley plans to offer to its customers.