UBS (UBS), which has $6.6 trillion in property underneath administration (AUM), plans to begin permitting some retail prospects to purchase Bitcoin and Ether, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing individuals acquainted with the matter.
In line with the story, the choice to begin providing cryptocurrency providers stems from rising demand from high-net-worth prospects.
“As a part of UBS’s digital asset technique, we actively monitor developments and search initiatives that replicate buyer wants, regulatory developments, market traits and strong danger administration,” a UBS spokesperson instructed CoinDesk. “We acknowledge the significance of distributed ledger applied sciences like blockchain to energy digital property.”
UBS has beforehand taken a cautious strategy to cryptocurrencies, however it could now be feeling stress from Wall Avenue rivals equivalent to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Each firms are increasing monetary providers, together with digital property, inside Washington, D.C.’s friendlier regulatory regime.
In November 2023, UBS made buying and selling in crypto-linked ETFs obtainable to rich purchasers in Hong Kong, becoming a member of rivals equivalent to HSBC Holdings. Late final yr, UBS accomplished its first on-chain redemption of tokenized funds utilizing Chainlink’s digital switch agent. UBS has additionally teamed up with cryptocurrency banking specialist Signum and Postfinance, a subsidiary of state-run Swiss Publish, to check inter-institutional funds in Ethereum.
