Morgan Stanley owns significant stake in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as revealed by SEC filing

Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley reportedly snapped up a significant number of shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as of late April, according to a recent filing.

Morgan Stanley’s exposure to BTC was worth $1.3 million

The investment bank has gained exposure to the leading cryptocurrency through Grayscale, by way of the Morgan Stanley European Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies in Europe. 

According to a June 28 filing with the United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Morgan Stanley owns 28,289 shares of GBTC, equivalent to $1.3 million at the time of the filing. 

The banking giant’s allocation follows Morgan Stanley’s April filing stating that the firm had given the green light to certain funds to gain exposure to Bitcoin indirectly. Each fund, including the European Opportunity Fund, its Institutional Fund and Insight Fund, can invest up to 25% of its total assets into crypto-related products.

With $4 trillion in client assets, the investment bank made a significant move to accept the leading cryptocurrency as an asset class. In late March, Morgan Stanley became one of the first large banks in the United States to offer its wealth management clients access to Bitcoin funds. 

Currently the world’s largest crypto asset manager, Grayscale has $29 billion in assets under management. The firm’s Bitcoin trust has been a way for institutions to allocate funds to the bellwether cryptocurrency through a product structured as a security. 

The crypto asset management firm currently holds 654,600 Bitcoin, more than 3% of the leading cryptocurrency’s supply. 

Accredited investors can purchase Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares directly at the net asset value by depositing BTC or US dollars. The shares can then be later on sold in the secondary market only after enduring a six-month lock-in period. 

GBTC shares that were purchased in January will be unlocked in July and are likely to release 140,000 Bitcoin worth of shares.