Morgan Stanley Recommends a 4% 'Opportunistic' Crypto Portfolio Allocation

U.S. banking titan Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Committee (GIC) recommends an allocation of up to 4% of portfolios to cryptocurrency, according to an Oct. 1 note.

The 4% allocation is at the top end of GIC's recommendations, pertaining to investors seeking "opportunistic growth," according to the note, shared on X by Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley on Sunday.

Investors seeking balanced growth or market growth should allocate 2% and 3% respectively. However, for those seeking wealth conservation or income, the allocation should be 0%.

The GIC described cryptocurrency as "a speculative and increasingly popular asset class that many investors, but not all, will seek to explore," adding that its commentary is focused primarily on bitcoin BTC$69,210.75, which it said is "akin to digital gold."

For comparison, BlackRock and Fidelity, which both offer crypto investment through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) both recommend an allocation of about 2%, where other ETF providers Grayscale and VanEck have offered recommendations of 5% and 6%.

For many in the crypto industry, that major financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and BlackRock recommend any allocation at all is a sign of how far cryptocurrency has come since the days when certain banking execs labelled it a "fraud".