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Bank of America is about to do something that could change how mainstream money treats bitcoin. Starting in January 2026 the bank will let its wealth advisers recommend a 1% to 4% allocation to crypto for eligible clients using a small list of approved spot bitcoin ETFs. This is not self directed trading inside a discount brokerage account. It is old school portfolio reviews where a human adviser with a book of high net worth clients says it is time to add 2% in a ticker like IBIT or FBTC.
The scale behind that recommendation is what turns this from a simple research note into a potential demand shock. Bank of America’s core wealth business which includes Merrill Wealth Management and the private bank oversees about $4.6 trillion in client assets. At Merrill alone client balances are reported around $3.9 trillion which lines up with the idea that roughly $3.1 trillion is sitting in adviser managed relationships that could be steered into these ETFs. If even 10% of those clients accept a 1% allocation that is roughly $3.1 billion flowing into only 4 approved funds.
The product shelf is narrow and that matters. Public reporting shows Bank of America directing advisers toward 4 spot bitcoin ETFs including BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC along with products from Bitwise and Grayscale. That means this wave of institutional style retail demand will not be scattered across dozens of obscure products. It will be concentrated into a few brand name vehicles that already dominate flows. BlackRock’s IBIT is the clear front runner after becoming the fastest spot bitcoin ETF in history to reach $70 billion in assets and now controlling more than 3% of the total bitcoin supply.
For BlackRock this new pipeline is like bolting a fire hose onto a tank that is already full. IBIT has pulled in more than $52 billion of net inflows in its first year and now ranks as one of BlackRock’s top revenue engines thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in annual fees. The fund has consistently absorbed billions from hedge funds wealth platforms and corporate treasuries that prefer a regulated ETF wrapper instead of direct coin custody. Layer Bank of America’s 15,000 advisers on top of that and IBIT is positioned to “eat harder” as more conservative money finally gets permission to touch bitcoin.
The playbook is simple. A wealth client comes in with a $2 million portfolio and the adviser has new house guidance that a 1% to 4% crypto sleeve is reasonable for investors who can tolerate volatility. The adviser suggests 2% across IBIT and FBTC and suddenly $40,000 of new demand appears from a person who never opened a crypto exchange account. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of relationships and the numbers compound quickly. Even modest adoption rates matter because the underlying asset is scarce and IBIT already commands a leading share of ETF based bitcoin.
This shift is also psychological. When the second largest United States bank by assets says that 1% to 4% in bitcoin exposure is acceptable it reframes the asset from fringe speculation into an aggressive but normal part of a modern portfolio. Vanguard’s recent decision to allow trading in crypto ETFs and similar guidance from firms like Fidelity and Morgan Stanley show that a new consensus is forming among large financial institutions. In that environment Bank of America’s January 2026 move is not an isolated headline. It is another gear clicking into place in a machine that converts traditional wealth management into a durable demand engine for a handful of dominant bitcoin ETFs led by BlackRock’s IBIT.
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