Morgan Stanley Joins The Big Banks Signalling ‘Bitcoin Belongs in Every Portfolio’
Morgan Stanley Joins The Big Banks Signalling ‘Bitcoin Belongs in Every Portfolio’
On the 5th October 2025, when Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest wealth managers, formally advised clients to allocate 2–4% of portfolios to Bitcoin, it wasn’t an isolated event and they’re not alone.
Many of the big banks have already advocated similar holdings, but family offices, and High Net Worth Investors (HNWI) are lagging. Especially in countries like Singapore where the government is slow to conceive of the benefits of Bitcoin.
For years, the conversation around Bitcoin in private wealth circles was divided: visionary believers on one side, sceptics citing volatility and regulatory uncertainty on the other. But 2025 has marked a turning point. Across Wall Street and Europe, the world’s most conservative banks are now building, advising, and allocating to crypto.
Who Else Is Moving?
- Goldman Sachs: Reopened its crypto trading desk and now offers Ethereum funds to wealthy clients through Galaxy Digital.
- Bank of America: Developing a U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin under CEO Brian Moynihan — a move unthinkable just a few years ago.
- Citigroup: Formed a dedicated digital asset group and is exploring its own stablecoin for client transactions.
- JPMorgan Chase: Once the loudest critic, now a blockchain payments pioneer participating in SWIFT’s global settlement trials.
- BNY Mellon: Providing institutional custody for Bitcoin and Ethereum through Fireblocks.
- BBVA: Advising clients to allocate up to 7% of their portfolios to cryptocurrencies — nearly double Morgan Stanley’s guidance.
Across the board, these institutions are aligning with a simple reality: Bitcoin is now a strategic asset class.
But what’s missing from most of these institutional roadmaps is how to hold it productively.
This is where Family Offices and HNWI’s can outperform. Their great advantage is being more nimble. Yet banks and big institutions are getting in first. But they will only buy and hold. There’s a better way to allocate that clever investors are adopting.
The Allocation Dilemma
Allocating 2–4% to Bitcoin may tick the diversification box, but for most wealth managers and family offices, it raises three immediate questions:
- How do we generate income from Bitcoin, not just hold it?
ETFs and direct holdings sit idle, offering exposure, but no yield. - How do we manage downside risk without capping upside?
Covered-call strategies and structured notes often trade potential gains for short-term income. - How do we handle custody, compliance, and reporting?
Regulatory variation and fragmented service providers make institutional-grade execution difficult.
In short, exposure is easy. Professional management is not.
The Problem with “Just Holding”
Passive Bitcoin exposure, whether in a wallet or ETF, leaves investors entirely dependent on price appreciation. When Bitcoin trades sideways, as it often does, portfolios stagnate.
When volatility spikes, portfolios draw down.
For wealth allocators whose mandate is preservation and growth, this is a poor fit. What’s needed is a way to capture Bitcoin’s upside while transforming its volatility into a productive source of yield.
This Is Where Radiance Comes In
The Radiance Multi-Strategy Fund Ltd, advised by Portal Asset Management, was purpose-built for this new phase of institutional adoption. But Radiance doesn’t hold Bitcoin passively, it compounds it.
Using a proprietary option-premium extraction strategy, Radiance generates income directly in Bitcoin, turning market volatility into a yield engine. Income is paid and compounded in BTC, not fiat, while the strategy maintains full upside exposure to Bitcoin’s price.
- 40% BTC-denominated income YTD (Sept 2025)
- Actively managed downside risk
- Institutional-grade custody (Fireblocks) and audit (RSM Cayman)
- Targeted 100% compound annual BTC growth¹
For family offices and HNW investors, this solves the missing piece in the 2–4% allocation puzzle:
Not just exposure, but productive exposure.
The Bottom Line
Banks like Morgan Stanley are right. Bitcoin now belongs in a well-diversified portfolio.
But the question isn’t whether to allocate, it’s how to make that allocation work harder.
Radiance transforms Bitcoin from a static asset into a compounding one, a disciplined, institutional-grade way to earn from volatility while staying long the future of money.
See more about how Radiance performs
¹Target returns are aspirational and not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Crypto assets are highly volatile, and investors may lose all capital. For professional investors only.