Morgan Stanley raids Credit Suisse for crypto role

Morgan Stanley has appointed Andrew Peel as Head of Digital Asset Markets. Based in Zurich and London, he joins from Credit Suisse, where he spent 12 years, most recently holding the position of Sales & Trading Innovation, Vice President.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a Credit Suisse trading subject matter expert for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, client coverage and internal presentations. His appointment comes as Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has been more open to cryptocurrencies than the likes of JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon.

Earlier this year, he told Bloomberg TV that Bitcoin was not going away. “It’s not a fad; the aggregate market cap of Bitcoin globally has surpassed Morgan Stanley,” he said. “We think we’re an important institution, but we don’t deserve the kind of press that Bitcoin is getting every day.”

However, he cautioned that, “it is punching above its weight, it is speculative, it is fulfilling a need but it is not something which is fundamentally changing the global landscape. And for the average investor I would be advising them not to invest in such speculative instruments.”

Maximalists vs diversifiers

Morgan Stanley also recently released a report giving an update on Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. It noted that Bitcoin believers had fractured into maximalists and diversifiers. “Maximalists think that Bitcoin will eventually win over all other crypto/digital/fiat currencies and view work on anything else as a distraction and waste of resources,” it stated.

“Diversifiers are looking for there to be wide range of digital currencies, etc. It feels like the incremental participant in the space is either a blatant opportunist or harbours extreme political ideologies and sees cryptos as a path to realisation. Noteworthy that sophisticated investors willing to give up traditional investor rights for potentially faster liquidity.”