Overview
- Bloomberg reports the bank is assessing a potential offering for institutional clients, with any move contingent on demand, risk review and regulatory feasibility, and a spokesperson declined to comment.
- Discussions include spot trading and derivatives within the markets division, with early indications pointing to execution services first rather than custody, consistent with prior remarks by digital assets lead Scott Lucas.
- Recent building blocks include a $100 million tokenized money-market fund on Ethereum, facilitation of a short-term Galaxy Digital bond on Solana, filings for Bitcoin-linked structured notes and plans to take BTC and ETH as loan collateral.
- A friendlier U.S. policy backdrop—stablecoin legislation and new OCC guidance permitting banks to act as crypto intermediaries—has reduced compliance hurdles cited by large lenders.
- Reports of the review coincided with a short-term lift in Bitcoin prices, while rivals such as Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, PNC and Standard Chartered advance their own crypto offerings.