Bank of America CEO: You can buy bitcoin — just not with us
AP Images / Richard Drew
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan had harsh words for his clients that want to trade bitcoin Wednesday, saying they could buy it elsewhere, but "not at Merrill Lynch."
On Wednesday, the cryptocurrency tumbled below $10,000 for the first time since November.
As cryptocurrency markets around the world get smoked in what's been called a "bloodbath," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan took the time to warn customers about investing in highly volatile bitcoin.
"We have limited our relationships and I think the thing speaks for itself," Moynihan told reporters on a conference call following the bank's fourth-quarter earnings beat. "We’ve basically told people that they could buy it in other accounts, but not at Merrill Lynch. And so it’s just our view that customers should be careful here."
Wall Street's biggest banks have taken differing approaches to bitcoin, which has swung wildly from less than $1,000 to almost $20,000 in the past year.
When bitcoin futures launches in December, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and JPMorgan notably did not provide their customers access to the contracts. Advisors employed by Merrill Lynch, Bank of America's wealth management arm, were instructed last month to not hawk Grayscale's Bitcoin Investment Trust, an investment product that seeks to mirror the price of bitcoin, to clients.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, however, Goldman Sachs has embraced cryptocurrency markets, and was reportedly staffing up a cryptocurrency trading desk to begin work as soon as June 2018.
Bitcoin plunged below $10,000 Wednesday, and has lost 23% of its value in the last week. You can track the price of cryptocurrencies in real time here>>
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