Bitcoin swap trading offered by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are all reportedly planning to offer derivatives tied to digital assets.

Morgan Stanley are planning to offer the opportunity for investors to expand in to crypto through the trading of complex derivatives tied to Bitcoin, according to reports from Bloomberg.

Bloomberg’s source, who is familiar with the matter, has announced that investors will be able to go long or short using the price return swaps but Morgans Stanley will not be trading Bitcoin directly. The swap trading tied with the crypto-giant will launch once the firm is assured that there is client demand and then an internal approval will be carried out.

Earlier in the year, CEO, James Gorman, discussed the firm’s plans to build a trading desk to support various derivatives linked with Bitcoin, such as these price return swaps.

Andrew Peel, head of digital asset markets at Credit Suisse Group, has been headhunted specifically for the new project due to his expertise, the source added.

This means three out of six top US banks are planning on trading crypto derivatives after Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have also both been linked to plans of offering similar products. There was speculation that Goldman Sachs had cancelled its plans of developing a crypto trading desk, but the bank’s CFO shot down these rumours and labelled them as “fake news”.