Bank of America expands crypto access for wealth management clients

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Dec 4 (Reuters) – Bank of America will begin allowing its wealth advisers to recommend allocations to crypto in client portfolios from next month, the U.S. lending giant said on Thursday, in a landmark moment for the digital assets sector.

Starting January 5, advisors at Bank of America Private Bank, Merrill, and Merrill Edge will be able to suggest several crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) clients, without any asset threshold.

Clients whose assets met predetermined thresholds have had access to bitcoin ETFs since early 2024, the bank said. However, the latest move evolves the role of advisors from executors of crypto orders to advisers.

As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to push regulatory relief for the asset class, crypto has been benefiting from widespread institutional adoption.

Several of these investors prefer to hold crypto via ETFs and ETPs, which provide greater liquidity and security, and simplified regulatory compliance compared to managing the underlying asset directly.

“For investors with a strong interest in thematic innovation and comfort with elevated volatility, a modest allocation of 1% to 4% in digital assets could be appropriate,” said Chris Hyzy, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank.

Proponents of crypto have long championed it as a diversification tool against inflation and conventional assets.

However, critics warn against its volatility and security concerns as an asset class.

Bitcoin shed more than $18,000 in November, as a record amount of money rushed out of the market, making this its largest monthly dollar loss since May 2021, when a number of cryptocurrencies collapsed.

“The link between adoption and long-term value is real but not guaranteed, and periods of speculative excess can distort prices far above true utility,” Merill said in a note.

(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)