Morgan Stanley Acquires 28,000 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Shares

Although traditional financial institutions and banks are concerned about digital currencies, some are allowing customers to gain exposure to the crypto market. U.S.-based multinational bank Morgan Stanley is one of the notable names in the lot.

Morgan Stanley Buys a Whopping 28,000 GBTC Shares

Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley’s Europe Opportunity Fund has purchased more than 28,000 shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust product, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The fund, which seeks exposure to several European companies as well as other assets, owns 28,289 shares of GBTC, which were worth around $1.3 million at the time of the filing. It seems the bank is increasing its exposure to the cryptocurrency market.

Morgan Stanley has become more involved in the cryptocurrency market in recent months in order to accommodate rising client demand.

Treading Into the Cryptocurrency Market

The allocation follows an April filing by Morgan Stanley, which revealed that the business had granted the go-ahead for some funds, including the European Opportunity Fund, the firm’s Institutional Fund, and the Insight Fund, among others, to receive exposure to bitcoin “indirectly.” Per the filing, each of these funds can invest up to 25% of its total assets into bitcoin-related products.

An investor note from Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit stated in March that any investment by institutions in crypto-assets such as bitcoin is speculative. However, the paper noted that the increased interest of institutional investors may indicate that the adoption threshold is gradually being met.

Morgan Stanley also made its first capital investment in blockchain earlier this month by co-leading a $48 million Series B fundraising round for Securitize, a Coinbase-backed tokenization platform.

Meanwhile, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust is marketed as a means for large institutions to invest in bitcoin through a security-like product. Its products sometimes trade at a discount or premium to the cryptocurrency it is designed to track.

The trust is the world’s largest crypto asset manager, managing $29 billion in assets. With approximately $21.7 billion in assets, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust controls the lion’s share.

At press time, bitcoin is exchanging hands at $34,965, according to data on the crypto analytics website CoinGecko.