Morgan Stanley owns millions of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares
According to a recent filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), investment banking giant Morgan Stanley holds over a million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Over 30 Morgan Stanley funds hold large amounts of GBTC shares as indicated by the SEC files. Morgan’s Insight Fund, which is the biggest of them all, owns over 928,051 shares worth around $36 million, the equivalent of over 760 Bitcoin at current market prices.
Other funds under the company, including the Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Inc., the Morgan Stanley Institutional Trust, and the Morgan Stanley Variable Insurance Fund seem to hold large amounts as well.
Back in June, when Bitcoin traded at the $30,000 region, Morgan Stanley disclosed a big position on the GBTC via its Europe Opportunity Fund.
Pseudonym market analyst MacroScope predicted that the bank would disclose exposition to Bitcoin via an investment product.
In SEC filings, Morgan Stanley has just reported owning a large amount of Grayscale Bitcoin across multiple portfolios.
— MacroScope (@MacroScope17) August 25, 2021
The largest of these appears to be 928,051 shares held by Morgan's Insight Fund.
These are major disclosures.
Link to all filings:https://t.co/Vi4iiBa5J5 pic.twitter.com/FZfU8qS0TX
Morgan Stanley became the first U.S.-based financial institution to offer its clients Bitcoin exposure. Since then, the bank has doubled down on the crypto industry in a bid to consolidate its assets under management (AUM), which stands at over $4trillion.
Apart from Grayscale’s Bitcoin product, Morgan Stanley has also invested in other crypto-based companies. It added more Bitcoin to its balance sheet via 12 investment vehicles in April.