Finance

The work-from-home boom has given several virtual reality (VR) companies incentive to experiment with new ways of trading.While platforms are rapidly evolving and firms are putting themselves in a position to sell the new technology, it’s not a big business yet — but many believe it will be soon.Glimpse Group is an umbrella company for several different VR businesses with real-world applications. The company went public last month and has eight VR groups in its portfolio, including telehealth, entertainment, and learning programs for schools and businesses.They’re also focused on stock trading through a business called D6 VR. It was developed by former Morgan Stanley analyst Andy Maggio who told CNBC in an interview, “I believe VR will be the most transformative technology in our lifetime.” While Maggio admits the technology isn’t quite ready for prime-time, he says the quality of the technology is rapidly improving. “The resolution is double what it was five years ago, the hardware is moving forward very quickly, it’s lighter and easier to use,” he said.While several financial firms have experimented with the technology, none are making plans to tear down their physical trading floors anytime soon.Former hedge fund manager and Glimpse Group CEO Lyron Bentovim isn’t surprised by the pace. “Wall Street is slow to adapt, but this is the future of trading,” he said.Bentovim makes the argument that a trader can see usually six to eight screens at the most in the physical space. “You’re limited,” he said. With VR you’ll be able to see and interact with dozens of screens and layer data upon data. “I can see a trader observing multiple trends and then immersing him or herself in the data without being constricted by physical limits,” he said.While Glimpse Group tries to make a name for itself in the space, it isn’t the first to enter. British firm FlexTrade, which specializes in creating software for financial companies, presented its first VR program for traders at a 2017 conference. “Traders just don’t have enough real estate on their desk,” said Managing Director Andy Mahoney. “We can do better than a keyboard, screen and a mouse.”FlexTrade’s Andy Mahoney demonstrates augmented reality at a conference for financial professionals.Courtesy: FlextradeIn test rounds, Mahoney found that full-scale VR made traders sick because it was too disorienting. With new enhancements, however, that’s becoming less problematic. FlexTrade’s research and development team has been giving clients test runs on augmented reality which incorporates a suite of data, charts and information into a real-world setting so that users see things in both the real and virtual world at the same time.”Clients love it, but they still don’t think we’re there yet… but we will be soon,” said Mahoney.”The real advantage is the ability to visualize data in multiple dimensions,” according to D6’s Chief Technical Officer Brennan McTernan.He believes there are three areas where VR is becoming more valuable to the financial industry. The first is for traders, allowing them to break out of a physical space and customize data and research. The second is seeing data in 3D and being able to control for size and color, and for overlaying data on top of other data. The third, McTernan said, is that “financial advisors can tell clients a better story and help explain the data better with virtual reality.” Executives in the space admit it can be uncomfortable and disorienting to wear a headset for multiple hours at a time. But they also make the case VR allows the potential for clients and financial professionals to work free from distractions, at least for part of their day.As far as adoption is concerned, the team at Glimpse is ready to be patient. CEO Bentovim said, “there was a time when nobody had a computer on their desk, then the tide turned very quickly.”TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

AMERICA’S LATEST jobs report was both encouraging and sobering. The world’s largest economy added 943,000 jobs in July. That is the best tally in nearly a year—but even at this pace employment will not catch up with its pre-crisis level until early 2022, six months after output regained its peak. Jobs in the rest of the rich world, too, are likely to take a while to return to pre-pandemic highs. Demand for workers is still lower than it was before covid-19 struck; and, more important, people have withdrawn from the world of work. Before the pandemic the rich world enjoyed an extraordinary jobs boom. In 2019 a higher share of people over the age of 15 was in the labour force—ie, either in work or looking for it—than at any point since at least 1990, even though populations were ageing rapidly. The working-age employment rate (the share of 16- to 64-year-olds in a job) was at an all-time high in over half of rich countries. Now labour markets are surprising in the opposite direction. Harmonised statistics are published with a long lag, but our best guess, based on data from eight countries, is that employment in the rich world is 3% below its pre-pandemic high (see chart 1). That points to a deficit of about 18m people—a huge waste of talent, not to mention a hit to tax revenues.What explains the gap? One potential explanation is that there is too little demand for labour. A rough measure of the overall need for workers involves adding the total number of people already employed to the number of unfilled vacancies (see chart 2). Even in America, the country experiencing the strongest economic recovery, this gauge is still 3% below its pre-crisis level, despite record-high vacancies. Some firms, such as those in manufacturing and health care, have healthy-ish demand for workers, but in leisure and hospitality demand is 12% below its pre-pandemic level. Covid-19 restrictions, such as travel bans, surely play a role in explaining weak demand. In Paris plenty of hotels remain closed. Your correspondent recently suffered the indignity of having to board a red-eye from JFK airport entirely sober because all the airport bars were still shut.Some economists point to insufficient spending power as a reason for subdued labour demand. In three-quarters of rich countries the “fiscal impulse”, a measure of the oomph government spending gives the economy, is turning negative this year. Yet it seems unlikely that governments can close the worker deficit simply by spending more. Compare America and the EU. In the spring of 2020 aggregate working hours in both economies tanked. America then passed gargantuan stimulus packages, while European governments chose more modest measures. The recovery in working hours since then has been only marginally better in America—not much extra labour for a lot of extra cash. This suggests that the worker deficit is not just about demand. The supply of workers may have fallen much more, limiting the jobs recovery. The share of people in the workforce in the rich world has fallen sharply since the pandemic began and, we estimate, is about 1.5 percentage points below its peak. Other indicators also point to a scarcity of workers. Wages, for instance, are growing fairly strongly.To understand whether and when the worker deficit might ease, then, you must consider why labour supply has fallen. Three broad explanations stand out: disruption owing to the spread of covid-19, the impact of welfare policy and pensions, and changes to longer-term attitudes wrought by the pandemic. Take disruption first. It is commonly believed that school closures have made it impossible for parents, particularly mothers, to take a job. The evidence for this is mixed, though. Analysis by Jason Furman, Melissa Kearney and Wilson Powell III concludes that extra joblessness among mothers of young children accounts for a “negligible” share of America’s employment deficit. Despite talk of a “shecession” early in the pandemic, in most rich countries the worker deficit for men remains larger.Disruption to migration may be a more plausible cause of the shortfall. Before the pandemic immigration drove workforce growth. Then countries slammed borders shut to contain cases. Today lower visa issuance in America accounts for about a fifth of its worker deficit. Australia is losing migrants on net for the first time since records began in the 1950s.Fear of the virus may also have disrupted labour supply. Even in highly vaccinated countries a surprisingly large share of people worry about contracting covid-19 (see chart 3). This surely puts some people off finding work in high-contact sectors such as hospitality. Lower labour supply might also reflect the impact of welfare policies such as handouts and pensions—our second category of reasons. Frothy stockmarkets may have boosted the value of some pension pots, prompting people to start their golf-club membership earlier than expected. That seems to have been the case in America: recent research by Goldman Sachs, a bank, finds that “excess retirees” account for about a quarter of the decline in the country’s participation rate. In other places, however, the share of 55- to 64-year-olds in the workforce has gone up. Research by the OECD, a rich-country think-tank, has shown that in many countries pension-fund returns were meagre in 2020, perhaps because some fund managers sold at the bottom of the market in the spring. Canadian funds’ real returns, at 1.9%, were one-third of America’s; in Australia they were negative. Small wonder that in both places participation of older workers has risen.For younger people, meanwhile, generous benefit payments introduced in 2020, an element of bonanza stimulus packages, may have blunted the need to find work. Although many of these are now being withdrawn, people might have used past handouts to accumulate savings, which might delay their return to work. According to our ana­lysis households in the rich world have built up additional funds worth a tenth of annual consumer spending.The third broad reason for lower labour supply relates to shifting attitudes. One intriguing possibility is that the pandemic has made people value work less. Many certainly report to surveys that they treasure family time more than they did. A shift in work preferences would be a seismic event; but it is frustratingly hard to measure whether it is actually happening. A clue, however, comes from Britain, which tracks people who say they want to work fewer hours, even if their pay falls. Normally economic downturns prompt reported “overemployment” to collapse. But not in this one. Bring all this together, and it seems that the extent to which the worker deficit endures will depend in part on how long the disruption and the fear caused by the pandemic last. Rising wages might lure some of those who left the workforce back into jobs. But the longer the pandemic goes on, the harder it becomes for those who left to return, and the more likely it is that new habits stick. The worker deficit might be here for some time. More

Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Los Angeles, California. May 1, 2021.Gerard Miller | CNBCBerkshire Hathaway’s operating income continued to rebound as its myriad of businesses from energy to railroads benefited from the economic reopening.The conglomerate reported operating earnings of $6.69 billion in the second quarter, up 21% from $5.51 billion in the same period a year ago, according to its earnings report released on Saturday.Overall earnings, which reflect Berkshire’s fluctuating equity investments, increased 6.8% year over year to $28 billion in the second quarter.Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett kept buying back Berkshire shares aggressively instead of making sizable acquisitions. The company repurchased $6 billion of its own stock in the second quarter, bringing the six month total to $12.6 billion. Berkshire bought a record $24.7 billion of its own stock last year.At the end of June, Berkshire’s cash pile stood at $144.1 billion, holding steady from last quarter’s level and still near a record despite the company’s massive buyback program.The results came as the conglomerate’s stock wiped out all of its 2020 losses and hit a record high in the period. So far in third quarter, Berkshire’s B shares are up another 2%, bringing their year-to-date gain to over 23%.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsAs economic activity continues to grind back to life from the pandemic with more commodities and goods being shipped around the country, Berkshire’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad stands to benefit. Earnings for railroads, utilities and energy jumped more than 27% from a year ago in the period to $2.26 billion, Berkshire said. The conglomerate’s other businesses, including homebuilders, paint-makers and GEICO insurance, are also seeing a boost.Though Berkshire acknowledged the quarterly results look stellar because they are bouncing back from a low base a year ago and the company is unsure of when results will truly return to normal.”The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected nearly all of our operations during 2020 and in particular during the second quarter, although the effects varied significantly,” Berkshire said in the earnings report Saturday. “The extent of the effects over longer terms cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.”At the height of the Covid crisis, Berkshire experienced a drastic slowdown with its operating income falling 10% in the second quarter of 2020 year over year and tumbling 30% in the third quarter.Berkshire said the risks from the pandemic still remain and could impact its results in the future.”Risks and uncertainties resulting from the pandemic that may affect our future earnings, cash flows and financial condition include the ability to vaccinate a significant number of people in the U.S. and throughout the world as well as the long-term effect from the pandemic on the demand for certain of our products and services,” the conglomerate said.Enjoyed this article?For exclusive stock picks, investment ideas and CNBC global livestreamSign up for CNBC ProStart your free trial nowTVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

In this articleHOODVlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt attend Robinhood Markets IPO Listing Day on July 29, 2021 in New York City.Cindy Ord | Getty ImagesShares of Robinhood popped again Friday as the volatile stock heads to end its first full week of trading up more than 55%.Robinhood shares rose 7.9% to $55.01 on Friday after whipsawing this week. The newly public trading app had a meme-stock moment followed by a surprising share sale announcement.On Friday, Robinhood reiterated it is not selling any stock, after Thursday’s news that existing shareholders will sell up to 97.9 million shares over time. That news knocked the stock down by 27% on Thursday.”Robinhood is not itself selling any additional securities but filed the Resale S-1 on behalf of certain of its shareholders pursuant to a pre-existing contractual obligation,” Robinhood said.The stock trading app also clarified Friday morning that these sales would not start right away, easing concerns about an immediate jump in stock supply that could weigh down the shares. Robinhood said these sales can’t start until SEC approval for the transaction, which shouldn’t occur until after Robinhood’s second quarter earnings on Aug. 18.The shares took off Friday in premarket trading after the Robinhood clarification.The rise and fall of Robinhood marked a stark contrast to the free-commission brokerage’s lackluster debut on the Nasdaq last week.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsThe rise in Robinhood’s stock began Tuesday, when it jumped more than 24%, blowing past its $38 per share IPO price amid major buying by hot-handed investor Cathie Wood. ARK Invest owns north of 3.2 million shares of HOOD.Wednesday brought a 50% spike in shares of the free-trading pioneer, resembling the meme stock rallies the company helped perpetuate in names like AMC and GameStop earlier in the year. The start of options trading were also credited with helping to boost the shares.On Thursday, the stock tanked following news of the share sale. The stockholders were among those who helped shore up Robinhood’s balance sheet during the historic trading mania earlier this year.Faced with unprecedented volatility and increased deposit requirements, the broker was forced to tap credit lines and raised new debt to ensure it had enough cash to clear trades. The selling shareholders include a number of venture capital firms that invested in Robinhood early on.The investors’ downside protected notes got converted at a 30% discount to the IPO price, so they bough the equities at $26.60 per share, according to Rainmaker Securities. The investors will be able to sell those shares after SEC approval. “Emergency financings tend to provide short term outs, and lots of protections for the investors. That’s what you get when you need $3 billion in 48 hours,” Greg Martin of Rainmaker Securities said.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

In this articleNVAXDKNGHOODDBXSPCEYELPBillionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson prepares to spray champagne after flying with a crew in Virgin Galactic’s passenger rocket plane VSS Unity to the edge of space at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., July 11, 2021.Joe Skipper | ReutersCheck out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Robinhood — Shares of Robinhood popped more than 9% after the company reiterated that it is not selling any additional stock. On Thursday, the company disclosed that existing shareholders will sell up to 97.9 million shares over time. The trading app also clarified Friday morning that these sales would not start right away, easing concerns about an immediate jump in stock supply that could weigh down the shares.Yelp — The online review site operator’s stock jumped over 7% after it reported quarterly earnings late Thursday of 5 cents per share, beating forecasts of a 9-cent per share loss. The company also beat estimates on revenue and raised its full-year forecast, citing continued strength in ad revenue.Virgin Galactic — Shares of Virgin Galactic jumped more than 7% following the space tourism company’s second-quarter results. Virgin Galactic announced it would reopen ticket sales with seats starting at $450,000, while further delaying the beginning of commercial service. Wall Street had mixed views on the news.Dropbox – Shares of the cloud storage company advanced more than 3% following earnings. Dropbox beat top- and bottom-line estimates during the second quarter, earning 40 cents per share excluding items on $531 million in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting the company to earn 33 cents per share on $524 million in revenue.DraftKings – The sports betting company saw its shares rise 1.9% following a stronger-than-expected quarterly report. DraftKings reported quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates and raised its revenue forecast for the full year 2021.Novavax – Shares of the drug maker plunged more than 19% after the company said it would delay seeking emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine until the fourth quarter. Novavax also posted a wider-than-expected loss and revenue that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.Didi Global – The Chinese ride-hailing company rose about 0.5% after Bloomberg News reported the firm is weighing giving up control of its most valuable data to help resolve a regulatory probe by the Chinese government. Chinese regulators started a cybersecurity review and forced Didi to stop signing up new users during the process.Carvana – Carvana shares edged up over 1% after the online used-car retailer posted an unexpected profit for its latest quarter. It marked the company’s first profitable quarter. Carvana also posted better-than-expected revenue as auto sales enjoyed a boom in demand since the pandemic began last year.– CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Hannah Miao, Pippa Stevens and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting.Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

In this articleZGDIDIDKNGWEED-CANVAXGCICheck out the companies making headlines before the bell:Canopy Growth (CGC) – The Canadian cannabis producer’s shares rose 1.9% premarket after it posted an unexpected quarterly profit on rising marijuana demand and cost cuts. The gain comes even as revenue falls short of Wall Street forecasts.Gannett (GCI) – The USA Today publisher earned 10 cents per share for its latest quarter, compared with forecasts of a 36 cents per share loss. Revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts. The company saw digital subscriber numbers jump 41% from a year earlier, and the stock rallied 6.3% in the premarket.DraftKings (DKNG) – The sports betting company’s stock jumped 3.5% premarket after it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue and raised its revenue forecast for the full year. DraftKings saw significant gains in a number of key metrics, including a 26% jump in monthly revenue per user.Novavax (NVAX) – Novavax shares tumbled 11.7% in premarket trading after the drugmaker said it would delay seeking emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine until the fourth quarter. Novavax also posted a wider-than-expected loss and saw revenue fall below Wall Street forecasts.Didi Global (DIDI) – Didi gained 4.1% in premarket action, following a Bloomberg report saying the China-based ride-hailing company was considering giving up control of its data to help resolve a regulatory probe by the Chinese government.Zillow Group (ZG) – Zillow reported adjusted quarterly earnings of 44 cents per share, 20 cents above estimates, with the real estate website operator’s revenue above estimates as well. Zillow also gave an upbeat growth forecast, as it scales up its home-flipping business, and said it expects sales this quarter to exceed $2 billion for the first time. Zillow added 1.8% in the premarket.Virgin Galactic (SPCE) – Virgin Galactic lost 39 cents per share for its latest quarter, 6 cents more than expected, though the space flight company did report much better-than-expected revenue. It also announced it will sell seats for space tourism flights at $450,000 and up. The stock was up 3.1% in premarket trading.Beyond Meat (BYND) – Beyond Meat slid 3.7% in premarket action after it reported a quarterly loss of 31 cents per share, 7 cents wider than expected. Revenue for the maker of plant-based meat alternatives did come in above Street forecasts, but it gave a cautious outlook due to “more conservative” orders by its customers due to Covid-related uncertainty.Dropbox (DBX) – Dropbox shares gained 3.5% in premarket trading after its adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share beat estimates by 7 cents and the cloud storage company’s revenue came in above forecasts as well.Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) – Cornerstone agreed to be bought out by private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group. Clearlake will pay about $3.8 billion, or $57.50 per share in cash for the cloud computing firm. Cornerstone surged 13.3% in the premarket.Zynga (ZNGA) – Zynga shares plunged 15.8% in the premarket after the mobile gaming company gave a disappointing full-year forecast, anticipating a slowdown in gaming. Zynga also reported adjusted quarterly earnings of 4 cents per share, 5 cents shy of estimates, with revenue below estimates as well.Carvana (CVNA) – Carvana shares rallied 11.3% in premarket trading after the online used-car retailer posted an unexpected profit – its first ever – for its latest quarter. The company’s revenue also exceeded analyst forecasts by a wide margin. Auto sales, in general, have enjoyed a boom in demand since the pandemic began last year.Yelp (YELP) – Yelp earned 5 cents per share for its latest quarter, compared with consensus forecasts for a 9 cents per share loss. The online review site operator also reported better-than-expected revenue and boosted its full-year forecast as ad revenue continues to strengthen. Shares surged 12.9% in premarket action. More

A currency dealer monitors exchange rates in a trading room at KEB Hana Bank in Seoul on June 21, 2021.JUNG YEON-JE | AFP via Getty ImagesShares of Kakao Bank shot up nearly 80% during its market debut in South Korea on Friday.Kakao Bank is South Korea’s first digital bank to go public, and is the country’s largest IPO since 2017 when Netmarble went public.At the end of South Korea’s trading day on Friday, Kakao Bank’s stock had surged 78.97% from its issue price.The gains for Kakao Bank came amid broader pressure in the South Korean markets, which saw the Kospi fall around 0.2% on the day. Stocks affiliated to Kakao Bank also declined, with both Kakao Corp. and Kakao Games falling more than 2% each.The public listing made Kakao Bank South Korea’s most-valued financial firm by market capitalization, according to local news agency Yonhap News.In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Kakao Bank CEO Yun Ho-young dismissed concerns about whether the IPO was overvalued.”I think the IPO price is largely set by the market, Kakao Bank is a bank in the mobile era,” he said.”We’re different from the existing banks and we are creating new market opportunities,” he added. “One million customer(s) opened the mobile bank account with Kakao Bank in just five days over launch. Based on these figures, don’t you think Kakao Bank is certainly different from the incumbent banks?”Kakao Corporation has a 31.62% stake in Kakao Bank as a majority shareholder, according to the bank’s IPO release in August. It became profitable in 2019 — just two years after launching its service in 2017.Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:Goldman Sachs raises year-end S&P 500 forecast to highest on Wall Street because of low rates20 strategists predict when stocks will have the next big tumble — and how far they’ll fallForget the U.S. — Europe is now the place to pick out cheap stocks, Bernstein saysYun said the bank hopes to expand beyond South Korea following its listing.Prior to its public debut, a few global firms had reached out to the digital lender to seek partnerships, Yun said.”At that time, we prioritize to focus on domestic events and had limitations in capital to pursue global expansion,” he said. “However, post the IPO, we’ll actively seek global opportunities.”On the firm’s future plans as it seeks to fend off competition from incumbents, Yun said it includes an initial expansion into the mortgage loans business for its banking service sector. Kakao Bank currently has 13 million monthly active users, according to Yun.— CNBC’s Chery Kang contributed to this report. More

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., listens during a Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit discussion in Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 2018.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWith little fanfare, JPMorgan Chase has started giving its wealth management clients access to six crypto funds in the past month.On Thursday, financial advisors were allowed to begin placing private bank clients into a new bitcoin fund created with crypto firm NYDIG, according to people with knowledge of the move. The fund is nearly identical to one NYDIG offers to clients of rival bank Morgan Stanley, said the people.Late last month, JPMorgan rolled out access to four funds from Grayscale Investments and one from Osprey Funds: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust, Grayscale Ethereum Trust, Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust and Osprey Bitcoin Trust, said the people.The sources declined to be identified speaking about the offerings, each citing an awkward fact: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of Wall Street’s most outspoken skeptics of bitcoin and related digital assets.The moves by JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, makes it clear that Wall Street’s years-long reluctance to deal with cryptocurrencies is over. It follows earlier steps by rivals Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to offer bitcoin funds to clients, CNBC first reported, and hundreds of smaller banks have lined up to do the same.While Dimon has called bitcoin a “fraud” that wouldn’t end well, there were signs that his resistance was eroding. Earlier this year, pressure at JPMorgan was building as clients asked for bitcoin exposure and employees openly pondered when the bank would get involved.Early signsIn May, with his bank in advanced negotiations with crypto firms to offer the array of funds, Dimon reiterated that he still didn’t support bitcoin. But he conceded that “clients are interested, and I don’t tell clients what to do.”Spokesmen for JPMorgan’s wealth management division and NYDIG declined to comment for this story.Read more about cryptocurrencies from CNBC ProThe world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency is rallying more than bitcoin Institutional investors are bullish on bitcoin again, based on this key data pointTop investor and author Charles Ellis talks meme stocks, crypto and how anyone can beat the marketGreg King, CEO of Osprey Funds, said in a statement that he was “pleased JPMorgan’s clients will now have access to the lowest-priced publicly traded bitcoin fund in the U.S.”A Grayscale spokeswoman said that the firm is “excited to see that respected financial institutions such as JPMorgan are listening and responding to growing investor interest in digital currencies.”Muted rolloutStill, the muted rollout of the products this summer is a sign of the bank’s ambivalence to bitcoin.JPMorgan advisors aren’t allowed to recommend the Grayscale or Osprey funds, but can only respond to client requests, according to Business Insider, which reported earlier on the fund additions.And while the bank is making those funds widely available across its various wealth management platforms, only private bank clients can access the NYDIG fund.That may be because the NYDIG product gives more direct access to ownership of bitcoin, held in cold storage by the crypto firm, rather than the other funds, which are shares in a trust that’s backed by bitcoin. Private bank clients typically have at least $10 million in assets and are considered more sophisticated investors.The NYDIG fund is being marketed as one of the least expensive and safest ways to gain bitcoin exposure, according to Coindesk, which reported on the product earlier.The fund is also being touted as having the ability to be seamlessly rolled into an ETF in the future, should one gain regulatory approval, one of the people said.Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro. Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial today. More