Morgan Stanley investment funds have acquired more than 6.5 million shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a move that comes as other prominent financial institutions look for ways to provide exposure to the cryptocurrency market for their clients.
Morgan Stanley invested in GBTC across more than a dozen ETFs, according to SEC papers uncovered by Decrypt. Its Growth Portfolio, which owns 2.3 million shares of the Bitcoin-focused fund, is now the fund’s largest shareholder.
Other funds include Morgan Stanley’s Insight Fund, an $8 billion equity growth fund that purchased over 900,000 shares in GBTC for $27.6 million, and the bank’s Discovery Portfolio, which purchased over 600,000 shares. It holds 130,000 shares in its VIF Growth Portfolio.
Morgan Stanley apparently purchased shares in June, when BTC was trading near the $30,000 mark and GBTC was trading near the $30 mark. It’s worth mentioning that the fund’s shares do not equal one BTC. Rather than that, according to Grayscale’s website, each share is worth 0.000937812 BTC.
Morgan Stanley is now the second-largest known holding of GBTC, trailing only Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management, which owns 0 million shares in the fund.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust provides investors with exposure to Bitcoin’s flagship currency without requiring them to retain or maintain any private keys. It is traded over-the-counter and needs a minimum investment of $50,000 and a holding period of six months. It charges a 2% annual expense fee.
The fund now manages moreover $31 billion in assets, as institutional investors continue to increase their exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency. While each share is currently trading at $37, the company has BTC holdings worth more than $44.
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