Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo And UBS Will Offer Bitcoin ETFs To Clients By Year-End, Bitwise CIO Says, Predicting Record Inflows

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan has said major financial institutions will soon start soliciting Bitcoin ETF investments from their clients.
Hougan believes Bitcoin ETFs will see record ETFs this year.
Strategy Chair Michael Saylor has advised against waiting for this outcome to play out.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been among the most successful ETF launches in history. But they have also been operating with a handicap.

Amid risk concerns, most banks have restricted wealth advisors from pitching Bitcoin ETFs to their clients. This may be set to change soon in a move that could turbocharge inflows to these funds and Bitcoin’s price.

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‘The Big Four'

Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan has said that the big four wirehouses, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley MS, Wells Fargo WFC and UBS UBS, which control over $10 trillion in customer assets, will soon start offering Bitcoin ETFs to their clients.

Wirehouses are large financial institutions that provide a wide range of services, including investment advice and wealth management.

“By and large, these platforms have not yet allowed their advisors to easily access bitcoin ETFs,” Hougan said in a Tuesday note, adding, “I suspect all four wirehouses will be open for business on bitcoin ETFs by the end of the year.”

This expectation is one of the reasons why Hougan still believes Bitcoin ETF inflows would hit a record this year, even though inflows have been slower. For context, these investment products have only seen $3.7 billion in net inflows year-to-date, well behind the $35 billion recorded in all of 2024.

Hougan has been expecting wirehouses to start offering Bitcoin ETFs to clients since the first half of last year. At the time, he said Bitwise was having “serious due diligence discussions with major wirehouses, institutional consultants and large corporations.”

To be sure, there has been some movement, but it has been limited. For example, in August, Morgan Stanley said that it would allow advisors to solicit Bitcoin ETF investments from clients, but it limited the move to clients with a net worth of at least $1.5 million.

$31T Waiting On The Sidelines?

Tephra Digital released data on Wednesday suggesting that $31 trillion in capital on wealth management platforms remained restricted from accessing Bitcoin ETFs, citing conversations with advisors at 25 financial institutions.

“Structural constraints are suppressing flows — and creating opportunity. That won’t last forever,” the firm said.

ETF flows have been one of the major factors influencing Bitcoin’s price in the past year. As such, a major increase in ETF inflows is expected to have bullish implications for the asset’s price. Indeed, the expectation that these products will see more net inflows this year is among the reasons Bitwise is bullish on Bitcoin. The firm has set a $200,000 year-end price target for the asset.

Meanwhile, prominent Bitcoin bull and Strategy Chair Michael Saylor has urged sidelined investors not to wait for this outcome to play out.

“By the time your financial adviser says it’s OK to buy Bitcoin, it’ll cost $1 million. When they say it’s a good idea, it’ll be $10 million,” he said.

As of last look, the asset is trading at just over $96,000.

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