President Trump's turnaround on cryptocurrencies is moving them more into the mainstream

After pivoting to accept cryptocurrency donations earlier this year, President Trump's turnaround on the industry is now bringing it more into the mainstream, with two leading Wall Street brokerages planning to introduce a wider range of customers to digital assets.

Morgan Stanley is preparing to let clients trade bitcoin and ether — two of the most popular tokens — through its E*Trade platform beginning next year, Bloomberg reports. The brokerage's competitor, Charles Schwab Corp., said Thursday it has similar plans.

Morgan Stanley has previously offered crypto trading to wealthy clients through ETFs and derivatives, but its new plan would allow everyday investors to directly buy and sell digital assets.

This would be a significant shift from previous years, when several banks limited their relationship with crypto or avoided it altogether. After crypto critics warned U.S. banking regulators of “key risks associated with crypto-assets” and issuing or holding as principal crypto-assets that are issued, stored, or transferred on an open, public, and/or decentralized network, or similar system would be highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued a joint statement to announce they were limiting the institutions’ involvement in crypto.

The three regulators later withdrew the guidance, in part “to further support innovation in the banking system,” the Fed said.

Even Trump was a critic in his first term. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and is based on thin air,” he wrote on X in 2019. “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

But he changed course during the 2024 campaign, accepting donations from the industry, selling digital trading cards and pledging to make America the “crypto capital of the planet.”

Since taking office in January, he has reversed a Biden-era crackdown on the industry and ratcheted up his own crypto business. Federal agencies charged with investigating crypto firms and enforcing rules have been stripped, and cases against top crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple and others have been dropped.

Trump has hawked meme coins featuring him and wife Melania, promoted a crypto business with his sons, proposed a U.S. “strategic crypto reserve,” issued an executive order supporting crypto, created a task force to set up a regulatory framework and appointed a crypto advocate as head of the regulatory agency that oversees the industry.

Trump Media & Technology is planning to offer bitcoin exchange-traded funds as part of Truth.Fi, its new financial services firm. And on Thursday, The New York Times reported that a fund backed by Abu Dhabi would be making a $2 billion business deal using digital coins from a separate Trump family crypto business.

Appearing on CNBC on Wednesday, Trump’s son Eric, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said the traditional banking system is “antiquated” — an opinion shared by many in the crypto community.

“I’m telling you, if the banks don’t watch what’s coming, they’re going to be extinct in 10 years,” Eric Trump said, per CNBC.