Key takeaways:
- Wells Fargo spokesperson spoke with Bussiness Insider and told them about the bank’s plans about offering crypto services to its “qualified investors”
- The offering will be limited to customers with an annual income of more than $200,000 or a net worth of more than $1 million
- Wells Fargo joins the trend of large financial institutions offering cryptocurrency-related products and services
Wells Fargo is set to become the latest among the growing group of large financial institutions to provide Bitcoin and digital currency exposure to its wealthy clientele, according to Bussiness Insider.
Wells Fargo cryptocurrency offering is limited to “qualified investors”
The first report of Wells Fargo showing interest in offering crypto services to its clients dates back to May of this year when the bank’s Wealth and Investment Management division toyed with an idea of implementing an actively managed Bitcoin investing service for high-net-worth clients.
At the time, the Wells Fargo Investment Institute (WFII) said: “WFII believes that cryptocurrencies have gained stability and viability as assets, but the risks lead us to favor investment exposure only for qualified investors, and even then through professionally managed funds.”
It seems that the initial plans finally came to fruition after months of deliberation, despite the company’s wariness of cryptocurrencies’ murky legal status. Initially, Wells Fargo intends to offer crypto services to its wealthier clients, dubbed “qualified investors”, specifically those with an annual income of more than $200,000 or a net worth of more than $1 million. The details about how exactly Wells Fargo’s offering will function in practice are not yet known.
Wells Fargo joins JPMorgan and other financial institutions in offering crypto-related services
A little over a week ago, on July 19th, JPMorgan announced that it will start providing crypto funds to its wealth clients. JPMorgan’s offering differs from Wells Fargo in several ways.
Firstly, JPMorgan decided to lower the limitations for the eligibility of the service offered much lower. All clients who have their funds managed by JPMorgan advisors and those who use the Chase trading app are eligible to take advantage of the cryptocurrency offering.
Additionally, JPMorgan already made clear how it plans to implement its crypto service into its existing product suite. The financial giant will give the option to its clients to decide between investing in five approved funds, which include Grayscale’s Trusts and Osprey Bitcoin Trust. Furthermore, the banks’ advisors are forbidden from recommending crypto products themselves, they can only follow their client’s instructions.
The institutional interest in the cryptocurrency industry is growing, mostly due to bank customers themselves expressing their interest in making investments in crypto assets. For instance, the investment banking giant, Morgan Stanley, is actively pursuing adding additional crypto offerings to its growing number of financial products. Morgan Stanley was the first big US bank to offer access to Bitcoin funds, however, the initial offering was very limited.
