Morgan Stanley, the banking behemoth, has made a nine-figure investment in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the cryptocurrency investment vehicle (GBTC). GBTC provides asset managers with exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) via shares that are based on the price fluctuation of the numero uno cryptocurrency.
According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the financial behemoth bought GBTC via four separate funds. The investment bank’s Insight Fund, which manages assets worth $8.1 billion, paid $36.19 million for 928,051 shares of GBTC.
The Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, with a net asset value of $5.63 billion, was the bank’s largest investor in GBTC. In all, it purchased 4,772,064 shares for $186.11 million in 12 different transactions. Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust (Discovery Portfolio), with $5.1 billion in net assets, purchased 611,868 shares for $23.86 million.
The Morgan Stanley Variable Insurance Fund, which has a net asset value of $237.44 million, made two distinct acquisitions totaling 179,703 shares for more than $7 million. The four firms paid a total of $253.17 million for 6,491,686 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
Morgan Stanley’s series of purchases, as per SEC filings, were made before the June 30th fiscal quarter, implying that the banking powerhouse stocked up on GBTC shares when Bitcoin was trading around $30,000. Morgan Stanley’s massive GBTC acquisition comes at the end of a year-long wave of cryptocurrency uptake by major financial companies.
According to a Bloomberg story last week, banking giant Citigroup is planning to provide institutional customers with access to Bitcoin derivatives trading instruments.
