Merrill Lynch still not allowing me to purchase Bitcoin ETFs

I’ve been steadily accumulating Bitcoin and other crypto for the past few years. I’ll always keep a majority of my Bitcoin in a hard wallet and believe self custody is important but I was also excited to get some exposure to a couple of the Bitcoin ETFs now that they have been approved.

I’ve always used Merrill Lynch for my stock trading and thought it would be a good opportunity to buy a few of the ETFs so that I have some Bitcoin exposure in this portfolio that can easily be traded during the next bull run. I was very unhappy to find out Vanguard and Merrill are not offering these Bitcoin ETFs.

When I went to go purchase it this week a notification came up saying that these ETFs are too risky and volatile and that they aren’t currently offered to Merrill clients.

I called them this morning and spoke to a “trading expert”. When asked about ETFs I didn’t have access to he said “let me guess, you’re asking about one of the Bitcoin ETFs.” After explaining that they don’t offer it because its too risky and unpredictable he also said that typically they wait at least a year before allowing trading for any new ETFs but that I shouldn’t hold my breath because Bank of America’s view on crypto is that it’s too risky to offer in any capacity.

I mentioned that is unfortunate and that I’ll take my money somewhere else like Fidelity to buy these ETFs and I told him I expect they will lose lots of customers who will do the same. He admitted that he thought it wasn’t very wise that they were preventing their clients to get exposure to this asset class and that he gets multiple people a day calling and asking the same thing. He’s mentioned it to his superiors that he gets many requests but he told me he doesn’t expect them to change their stance any time soon.

Is anyone else running into the same issue? Why do you think they are preventing clients from participating in this asset class? I’m thinking they still see crypto as a threat to their way of business and will continue to dig their heels in. But the more they try to tighten their grip, the more people will seek exposure elsewhere and the DeFi ecosystem will grow. Why must these institutions be so stubborn?