Fractional Digital Asset CIO for RIAs
Keep client capital on your books, and bring in assets your firm couldn't manage before.
Chances are some of your clients already hold crypto at exchanges and apps. Block3 gives your advisors the policy, the custody, and the product access to offer it in-house, so that money stays with the firm and new mandates have somewhere to land.
Where client capital ends up
Retain
Bring the crypto your clients hold elsewhere into view, and keep that capital on your books.
Offer
ETFs, index funds, SMAs, and direct custody, under one written policy.
Grow
New mandates for services your firm couldn't offer before.
~3 in 4
advisors say some clients already invest in crypto on their own
Nearly a third of advisors already allocate.
Surveys capture what advisors say. Filings show what their firms hold. Both point the same way.
of advisors allocated to crypto in client accounts in 2025, up from 22% the year before
of independent RIAs allocated, the highest of any advisor type in the survey
of advisors fielded a crypto question from a client in 2025
independent RIAs held spot crypto ETFs in Q2 2026, per Block3's 13F analysis
Firms reporting spot crypto ETFs, by quarter
Matched independent RIAs, from Block3's 13F analysis. Hover a quarter for its share of filers.
Holders peaked at 969 in Q4 2025 and settled at 837. Our hypothesis is that the exits cluster among firms that bought without a written policy, while the firms that stayed kept building.
Holding rate by firm size, Q2 2026
Share of matched filers holding spot crypto ETFs, by regulatory AUM
$150M to $500M
317 of 1,302 firms
$500M to $1B
260 of 853 firms
$1B to $3B
260 of 641 firms
The bigger the firm, the more likely it already owns them.
Fewer holders, bigger commitments
+0.0%combined share count of the 585 firms that held in both Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, at constant ETF prices
388 of the 585 continuing holders added shares, so the growth reflects buying rather than price moves.
The biggest platforms have already moved.
In under a year, the largest platforms went from cautious to live, each with the same three pieces: an approved product list, an allocation range, and advisor training. An independent firm can run that play at its own scale.
October 2025
Morgan Stanley
Its Global Investment Committee set crypto allocation ranges, topping out at 4%.
December 2, 2025
Vanguard
Opened its brokerage platform to third-party crypto ETFs and mutual funds.
January 5, 2026
Merrill
Advisors can recommend four spot bitcoin ETFs at 1% to 4% allocations, after training.
April 16 and May 13, 2026
Schwab
Announced, then rolled out, spot bitcoin and ether trading for its clients.
July 16, 2026
E*TRADE
Completed its spot rollout with bitcoin, ether, and solana.
Target: mid-2027
Schwab advisor channel
Spot trading, transfers, and custody on the largest RIA custody platform.
stablecoins outstanding, Sep 25, 2026
The GENIUS Act, signed July 18, 2025, gave payment stablecoins their first federal framework.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Citi's institutional clients can accept stablecoin payments through Citi's merchant services, with Coinbase supplying the rails. The two first announced their collaboration in October 2025.
Your advisors get more to offer.
Clients get access without leaving the firm, and every item sits inside a written policy your committee approves.
Spot bitcoin and ether ETFs
Held at the custodian you already use.
Multi-asset index funds
Broader exposure, where your policy allows it.
SMAs and hedge fund opportunities
Separately managed accounts for active strategies, plus access to hedge fund opportunities.
Direct custody
Through a federally chartered trust bank, for clients who want to hold the asset itself.
Guidance for your advisors
Help planning each position, so your advisors can build and grow their books with confidence.
Where does your firm stand?
Five questions from the getting-started checklist in the field report. Each one maps to a piece of the work Block3 does with your team.
Policy
Our investment policy has a written digital asset section.
Custody
We've chosen an access route and documented due diligence on the custodian.
Operations
Our trading, reporting, and billing can handle digital asset positions.
Training
Every advisor can explain the position and its sizing, and our committee has signed off.
Clients
We know what our clients hold outside the firm.
Answer all five to see where your firm stands.
Talk through your answersNothing here is saved or sent
From first call to a running desk.
Four steps, with the first deliverables in about 30 days.
- 01
Day 1
A 30-minute strategy call
Where your firm stands today, and what a sensible first step looks like.
Current positionFirst step - 02
Week 1
Map the book
The book, the current policy, and the held-away assets, in one picture.
Policy reviewHeld-away map - 03
Weeks 2 to 4
Deliverables in ~30 days
Drafted for your CCO and committee to mark up before anything goes live.
Digital asset policyAdvisor training - 04
Monthly
The desk runs
The board hears the plan first, then the program runs on a monthly cadence.
Board briefingMonthly review
The fund you're planning is one I've already run.
I've spent more than a decade in financial services, most recently as Chief Investment Officer of an SEC-registered investment adviser, where I helped scale the firm from zero to $650 million in assets across 1,200 clients while personally managing about 60 households and $70 million in capital. Along the way, we raised roughly $250 million across four Reg D vehicles serving 700 limited partners, built the custody, fund administration, and audit relationships with established partners in the space, and facilitated $30 to $40 million in loans against digital assets.
Running those funds meant owning everything that comes after launch, from monthly and quarterly reporting to investor calls and ongoing relations with our limited partners. I'm the author of Warren Buffett in a Web3 World, publish BitFinance to about 17,000 weekly readers, and speak regularly at digital asset industry events.
$650M
in assets built from zero, across 1,200 clients
~$250M
raised across four Reg D vehicles with 700 limited partners
~17,000
weekly readers of the BitFinance newsletter
Free report
The Allocation Gap: the 2026 field report
The survey data, the platform timeline, the custody options, and Block3's original analysis of SEC filings from 2,846 independent RIAs, in one PDF.
Before you book
Are you giving investment advice to our clients?
No. The engagement is with your firm. Block3 builds the policy, the custody file, and the training, while your advisors keep every client relationship. Your investment committee approves anything before it reaches a client.
How does this work with our CCO and our board?
Everything is written to be reviewed. The policy drafts, the custodian due diligence file, and the board briefing are documents your CCO can mark up, and nothing goes live before the committee signs off.
Why not hire a full-time digital asset specialist?
You may get there eventually. A fractional engagement gives you the policy, the custody path, and the training first, so you can decide whether the program's size justifies a dedicated hire once it's running.
How are engagements structured?
Hourly and retainer engagements available. The four steps above are the same either way, and the strategy call is where scope gets set.
Do you work with firms other than RIAs?
The practice is built around SEC-registered RIAs, since that's where the operating record comes from. If your firm sits elsewhere in wealth management, book the call and we'll find out together whether the fit is real.
When a client asks about digital assets, your firm should already have the answer.
Book a 30-minute strategy call. There's no charge for the call.