Morgan Stanley Considers Bitcoin Trading in the Future

by Simon Briggs

Through the application of price return swaps, people would be able to go long or short, and Morgan Stanley will charge fees for each transaction.

The banking institution has the required technical expertise to offer Bitcoin swap trading and would be able to launch the platform after the finish of an internal approval process.

A growing number of banks are trying to offer their clients digital assets. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are some of the few that are preparing Bitcoin-related products.

Morgan Stanley plans to give its customers Bitcoin-bound contracts and would not allow direct Bitcoin trading at first. The Chief Executive Officer James Gorman announced that the bank would not let customers purchase and trade cryptocurrency directly but instead would implement a trading desk that will support various derivatives tied to digital assets.

Andrew Peel is the new head of the digital assets markets of Morgan Stanley. Mr. Peel worked in Credit Suisse Group AG and had lots of experience with the upcoming plan.

Another banking giant Citigroup is planning to reach the crypto market by launching Bitcoin trade products. The bank‘s clients would have the opportunity to start trading Bitcoin without the need of having any cryptocurrency directly. This procedure is known as non-custodial trading.

Goldman Sachs is said to examine derivatives on Bitcoin that are called non-deliverable forwards and could allow custody for crypto funds in the future.