Morgan Stanley to acquire Korea's largest crypto exchange Bithumb

First, they laugh, then they fight, and finally, they join. 

Morgan Stanley's interest in Bitcoin has recently come in bifold as the investment bank has been rumored to be in talks to purchase a stake in a prominent crypto exchange in South Korea.

Wall Street giant plans to invest $441 million in Bithumb

Following the announcement of Morgan Stanley's first move to offer its clients exposure to Bitcoin, the investment banking giant has reportedly been in talks regarding the acquisition of a significant share of Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb. 

Citing an undisclosed source within the exchange, local media outlet Naver reported that "Morgan Stanley participated in the acquisition of Bithumb." While the Korean crypto exchange targets a $2 billion valuation, Morgan Stanley is planning to invest between $254 million to $441 million for a large share in Bithumb. 

According to Aju News, Morgan Stanley has initially approached Bident, the largest shareholder of Bithumb, for the acquisition. The anonymous source familiar with the matter was quoted:

The reason Morgan Stanley used Bident is that it understood that Bident has the right to negotiate a preferred sale to acquire Bithumb Holdings.

The news around Bithumb being for sale has been circulating for a while. Gaming giant Nexon has previously negotiated on acquiring a stake in the exchange, but the deal has since fallen apart. 

Morgan Stanley, one of the largest investment banks in the US, has recently announced that the firm would offer its wealthy clients access to Bitcoin funds due to increased client requests for exposure. 

Although Bitcoin's popularity seems to be climbing across institutions, Morgan Stanley limits BTC investments to 2.5% of the client's total net worth and suggests that the cryptocurrency is only suitable for those with "aggressive risk tolerance."

Deutsche Bank has also been planning custody and other services for its clients, offering exposure to the new asset class. The bank's recently published report stated that the firm expects Bitcoin price to continue to rise as long as asset managers and companies are increasingly entering the crypto market. 

Given Bitcoin's $1 trillion market capitalization, Deutsche Bank further concluded that BTC is now "too important to ignore."