- One of Morgan Stanley’s funds bought over 28,000 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
- The investment bank’s indirect exposure to Bitcoin was an allocation of $1.3 million at the time of purchase.
- Morgan Stanley has given the green light to several funds to invest up to 25% of total assets in BTC-related products.
Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley reportedly bought back a significant number of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares in late April, according to a recent filing.
Morgan Stanley’s exposure to BTC was $1.3 million
The investment bank has gained exposure to the leading cryptocurrency through Grayscale, through the Morgan Stanley European Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies in Europe.
According to a June 28 filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Morgan Stanley owns 28,289 GBTC shares, which equates to $1.3 million at the time of filing.
The banking giant’s allocation follows Morgan Stanley’s April filing showing that the company had given the green light to certain funds to indirectly gain exposure to Bitcoin. Each fund, including the European Opportunity Fund, its Institutional Fund and Insight Fund, may invest up to 25% of its total assets in cryptocurrency-related products.
With $4 trillion in client assets, the investment bank has taken an important step in accepting the leading cryptocurrency as an asset class. At the end of March, Morgan Stanley became one of the first major banks in the United States to offer its wealth management clients access to Bitcoin funds.
Currently, Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, manages $29 million in assets. The company’s Bitcoin trust has been a way for institutions to allocate funds to the flagship cryptocurrency through a product structured as a security.
The crypto asset management company currently holds 654,600 Bitcoin, or more than 3% of the main cryptocurrency’s supply.
Accredited investors can buy Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares directly at net asset value by depositing BTC or US dollars. It can then only sell the shares in the secondary market after going through a six-month lock-up period.
GBTC shares that were purchased in January will be unlocked in July and are expected to release 140,000 Bitcoins from shares.
