In Brief:
- Morgan Stanley increases its exposure to bitcoin by purchasing Grayscale BTC trust shares.
- At current market pricing, the firm holds 6.6 million GBTC shares worth over $300 million.
- The US bank attains exposure to bitcoin through Grayscale without investing directly in crypto.
Morgan Stanley, a leading US investment bank, boosts its Bitcoin exposure to more than $300 million by purchasing shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
According to the SEC filing, Morgan Stanley Insight Fund boosted its holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust(GBTC), by more than 63 %, from 928,051 shares in the second quarter of 2021 to 1,520,549 as of Sept. 30.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is a financial device that allows investors to buy and sell shares in trusts that hold huge amounts of bitcoin.
This allows investors to have exposure to bitcoin without having to buy and hold the underlying asset.
The SEC filings on the firm’s Growth Portfolio states that it had 3,642,118 GBTC shares in the third quarter of 2021, up 71 percent from 2,130,153 shares in the second quarter.
The Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity Portfolio also raised its GBTC holdings by 59 percent in the third quarter, from 919,805 to 1,463,714 shares.
The overall number of GBTC shares held by the three funds now stands at 6,626,381, and around $307 million with the price of GBTC being $46.42 at the time of posting.
Through these share purchases, Morgan Stanley acquires exposure to bitcoin through the corresponding portfolios and funds without investing directly in the cryptocurrency.
A lot of firms are utilizing Grayscale BTC trust so as to explore more in the crypto space without directly investing in the same. Earlier in June, Ark Invest bought 310,067 Shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The shares were purchased for $25 per share using ARK’s ARKW ETF.
