UBS (UBS), which has $6.6 trillion in belongings below administration (AUM), plans to start out permitting some retail clients to purchase Bitcoin and Ether, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing folks acquainted with the matter.
In line with the story, the choice to start out providing cryptocurrency providers stems from rising demand from high-net-worth clients.
“As a part of UBS's digital asset technique, we actively monitor developments and search initiatives that mirror buyer wants, regulatory developments, market developments and sturdy danger administration,” a UBS spokesperson informed CoinDesk. “We acknowledge the significance of distributed ledger applied sciences like blockchain to energy digital belongings.”
UBS has beforehand taken a cautious strategy to cryptocurrencies, however it could now be feeling stress from Wall Road rivals similar to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Each corporations are increasing monetary providers, together with digital belongings, inside Washington, D.C.'s friendlier regulatory regime.
In November 2023, UBS made buying and selling in crypto-linked ETFs accessible to rich purchasers in Hong Kong, becoming a member of rivals similar to HSBC Holdings. Late final 12 months, 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 Put up, to check inter-institutional funds in Ethereum.
