Morgan Stanley’s Outstanding Crypto Research Summary

Banks and alternative forms of currency don’t really get along well. JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon’s tirade against Bitcoin last year as well as recent spit venom comments related to Bitcoin (1) are a testament to the same. But some banking giants have a much more fair and thoroughly researched assessment for the same. Morgan Stanley is one of them as evident through the 15 crypto research articles published so far. In its latest 50 page document release, the research division of Morgan Stanley states cryptocurrencies are now ‘Institutional Asset Class’ (2). Although Morgan Stanley may not be interested in offering custodian service for cryptos, it may well be using Bakkt’s upcoming custodian service to offer institutional grade crypto investment products to serve the increasing demands of crypto exposure of funds world over.

Another interesting observation of the firm’s research publication is that majority of crypto transactions are now against other cryptos and not with fiat currencies. It’s unclear if this can be seen as sign of new money not coming into cryptos. This notion is further supported by data that institutional investors have increases crypto holding this year whereas individual retail players are not on average keen about crypto purchases (3). Stay tuned and don’t miss the future with us. The Future is Now!