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Bank Of America Opens Its Doors To Bitcoin
Beginning Jan. 5, 2026, the bank’s wealth management advisors will be allowed to recommend a 1%-4% allocation to cryptocurrencies through the Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank, and Merrill Edge platforms, according to a report from Yahoo Finance.
Bank of America’s chief investment office will also begin coverage of four Bitcoin ETFs — BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Bitwise’s BITB, Fidelity’s FBTC, and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC).
“For investors with a strong interest in thematic innovation and comfort with elevated volatility, a modest allocation of 1% to 4% in digital assets could be appropriate,” Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer at Bank of America Private Bank, said in a statement. “The lower end of this range may be more appropriate for those with a conservative risk profile, while the higher end may suit investors with greater tolerance for overall portfolio risk,” Hyzy added.
The development reverses Bank of America’s prior policy, which barred advisers from endorsing crypto unless a client explicitly requested access. That restriction effectively sidelined over 15,000 advisers during a period when institutional interest in regulated digital asset products was soaring.
 
It comes a day after Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset management company, approved crypto ETF trading for its clients, marking a U-turn from its previous stance on digital asset ETFs.
For many in the crypto industry, that major financial institutions such as Bank of America and Vanguard allow their clients to dabble in crypto is a sign of how far the nascent asset class has come since the days when certain banking execs labeled it a “fraud.”
BlackRock Helped Create Bitcoin Allocation Blueprint
Notably, BlackRock was the first renowned Wall Street institution to advise interested investors to allocate as much as 2% of their portfolio to Bitcoin, the world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency.
Back in June, asset management firm Fidelity also backed a 2% to 5% Bitcoin allocation, which was small enough to minimize the risk of a BTC crash, but big enough to enjoy any upside from the asset’s inflationary hedge.
Morgan Stanley then issued a 2%–4% recommendation for “opportunistic portfolios” in October.