Regulatory uncertainty remains a key concern for advisor engagement with crypto.

“Despite the recent change of heart by the SEC that was not foreseen until shortly before the ETH [spot ether ETF] approval deadline, a significant regulatory framework around digital assets still is missing,” the Cerulli report said.

Some regulatory ambiguity could be to a solved by the passage of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which already has passed the House of Representatives but still needs approval by the Senate and President Biden.

That alone may not be enough, however.

“Many of the largest wealth platforms, wirehouses, and advisor networks haven’t fully approved the Bitcoin ETFs,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said in an interview. “In most cases, the only way those advisors or brokers are currently allowed to buy a Bitcoin ETF for their client(s) is after a client specifically requests it.”

Seyffart said he expects the rules surrounding advisors being able to offer spot bitcoin ETFs to their clients to change by the end of the year, although that process could still take many months to unfold.

That said, it’s not that advisors are not warming to crypto at all. Cerulli also found that 58.9% of financial advisors do not ever expect to discuss crypto with their clients; however, that proportion has declined slightly from the 62.2% responding the same way last year.