Financial advisors at Merrill Lynch have been formally banned from pushing bitcoin-related investments for their clients, according to reports. Under the terms of the ban, Merrill’s approximately 17,000 advisors can not pitch bitcoin-related investments..
Merrill advisors are further banned from executing client requests to trade Grayscale’s bitcoin investment trust (GBTC). Merrill Lynch has since confirmed the decision through a spokesperson..
Given bitcoin’s extraordinary performance, GBTC was one of the top performing ETFs in 2016, according to data out of ETF.com. The latest from Merrill is of a piece with prior actions — the firm had previously banned access to bitcoin futures via the CME, the world’s largest futures exchange, and its competitor Cboe..
Despite the reticence of players like Merrill, not to mention an increasingly loud chorus of international regulators, bitcoin has seen its price rise more than 1,300 percent over the last 12 months. Bitcoin, as of pre-market trading on January 4, was at $1,456 per unit..
https://www.pymnts.com/news/bitcoin-tracker/2018/merrill-lynch-bans-bitcoin-for-its-client-advisors/
