Merrill Lynch last week became the latest — and largest — Wall Street bank to say no to bitcoin. After a more than 2,000 percent gain last year, it’s the hottest thing to hit Wall Street since Amazon stock took off..

Merrill’s thundering herd couldn’t even sell one of the most popular gateway investments to bitcoin:, the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust Fund. It’s unregulated and volatile — something Main Street investors should avoid..

UBS, which has a much smaller army of advisers, already bars its team from pitching bitcoin to clients. Though bitcoin is likely to evolve into a less volatile asset, the craze today reminds me of the 1990s’ know-it-all yuppie tech stock fad..

When bitcoin’s value falls again — and it tumbled 30 percent in less than a week last month — mom-and-pop investors will get burned — and then get angry. Merrill’s move to keep its millions of small-time investors away from the nascent asset is smart and will ensure those clients won’t have sleepless nights..

https://nypost.com/2018/01/06/why-merrill-lynch-wont-touch-bitcoin/