According to reports, Morgan Stanley’s wealth advisers will soon be able to recommend Bitcoin BTCUSD exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to their clients. Bitcoin network difficulty has reached an all-time high, adding pressure to the mining community. Meanwhile, inflows into Ethereum ETFs have flipped positive again despite Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust bleeding $2 billion.
Morgan Stanley to embrace Bitcoin ETFs: Report
According to CNBC, Morgan Stanley’s network of 15,000 financial advisers will soon be able to recommend spot Bitcoin ETFs to their clients.
Beginning Aug. 7, financial advisers will reportedly be able to advise their clients on purchasing shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). Analysts say this represents a major milestone for Bitcoin, given that Morgan Stanley manages roughly $3.75 trillion in client assets.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen tremendous success since launching in January, though most of the inflows have come from crypto-native retail investors and hedge funds. Morgan Stanley’s clients represent a network of investors that extend far beyond Bitcoin’s base.
Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at VettaFi, told Cointelegraph that BlackRock’s and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETFs have appealed to independent financial advisers.
Bitcoin network difficulty breaks 3-month downtrend to mark new ATH
For nearly 3 months, between May 9 and July 30, Bitcoin’s network difficulty witnessed a significant decline, effectively reducing the computational power required to confirm Bitcoin transactions over the blockchain.
However, the network difficulty shot up on July 31 and eventually marked a new all-time high on Aug. 1 at 90.66 trillion. The difficulty increased by 14%, which is positioned to negatively impact miners’ earnings in the near future.
Amid growing financial pressure, Bitcoin mining firms are currently holding on to the BTC rewards in hopes of selling it for a bigger profit in the near future.
Ethereum ETF flows flip positive despite total ETHE outflows topping $2B
Net inflows into United States spot Ether exchange-traded funds have flipped positive again despite cumulative outflows from Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust breaching $2 billion.
On Aug. 1, the roster of eight recently approved spot ETFs posted a net inflow of $28.5 million, led by a $91.4 million inflow into BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), per FarSide Investors data.
Meanwhile, Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust saw outflows of $78 million on the day, bringing the cumulative outflows from the fund to just over $2 billion since its conversion to a spot fund.
Unlike the other eight spots ETH ETFs that were launched as “newborn” funds on July 23, ETHE was a trust that offered institutional investors exposure to ETH. ETHE was converted to a spot ETF on July 23.
Prior to its conversion, ETHE held a total of $9 billion in Ether on its books. Today’s outflow figure means that 22% of the initial fund has been sold.
Several analysts predict that gradually slowing outflows from Grayscale’s fund could mark a turning point for the price of Ether.
