Two major banking institutions, UBS and Citigroup, have made an announcement regarding limited client access to trading exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the first-ever cryptocurrency. This move comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Bitcoin ETFs, and UBS and Citigroup clients will now have the opportunity to trade shares of these newly approved ETFs, albeit with certain conditions. To ensure that risk is managed effectively, these companies are imposing restrictions on transactions with Bitcoin ETFs for clients who exhibit a low risk tolerance when it comes to meeting their obligations and managing their assets.
Reliable sources have indicated that Merrill Lynch, a prominent investment bank, may also join UBS and Citigroup in offering Bitcoin ETFs to its clients in the near future. However, Merrill Lynch is currently adopting a cautious approach to assess the trading efficacy of Bitcoin ETFs before diving in. By making this decision, UBS and Citigroup have put to rest speculations circulating within the crypto community, which suggested that leading players in the credit and financial industry might align with Vanguard’s stance and deny their clients access to Bitcoin ETFs.
Vanguard, the second-largest asset manager globally, had announced that it would prohibit its clients from purchasing shares of new spot Bitcoin ETFs, citing a misalignment with its investment philosophy.
Henrik Lindqvist is our DeFi and on-chain reporter, splitting his time between Stockholm and London. A former software engineer at Klarna, he switched to journalism in 2021 and has since broken stories on MEV exploits, restaking risks and Layer-2 economics. Henrik writes the BTCNews weekly Layer-2 newsletter and has lectured on blockchain architecture at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
