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Morgan Stanley Bags Over 58,000 GBTC Shares As Bitcoin Price Shakes

As Bitcoin and other cryptos gain more credence, many top shots in diverse industries embrace the crypto community.

Many companies, including Tesla, had accepted BTC payments once, and even a country like El Salvador is now using it as a legal tender. So, it’s not surprising that Morgan Stanly, an extensive American Investment bank, will buy shares of a Bitcoin Trust.

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In a recent development, the bank acquired 58,000 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. It had previously owned some shares of the Trust, including the 28,289 shares bought earlier in 2021. This latest addition has increased the number of shares that the bank holds across many portfolios.

The investment bank disclosed this latest purchase through an SEC filing showing that it bought the shares on July 31, 2021. At the time of writing, the price of Grayscale BTC Trust stands at $32.55. The bank “Insight Fund” holds 928,051 shares which depicts a $31.7 million worth of shares for one of Morgan Stanley’s portfolios.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is currently trading in a downward momentum | Source: GBTCUSD on TradingView.com

The bank’s announcement in April 2021 has added Bitcoin assets to at least 12 of its funds through the Grayscale BTC Trust plus Cash-settled Futures. The accumulated figure shows 6.5 million GBTC shares.

Companies Holding Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust

Apart from Morgan Stanley, another investment bank pushing into BTC exposure is JP Morgan. It is the second-largest GBTC shareholder, while Cathie Woods Ark Investment remains in the first position to date.

Related Reading | Bitfinex To Roll Out Security Token Offerings (STOs) Platform In Kazakhstan

The firm disclosed in July that it had added over 450,000 GBTC shares in two purchases. Many others with GBTC shares include Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and BlackRock.

Featured Image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

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BlackRock is trading Bitcoin futures, how much BTC is held by institutions?

Per a Coindesk report and a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), investment firm BlackRock has begun trading in Bitcoin futures.  BlackRock has reportedly allocated a small part of its portfolio in BTC on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange financial derivatives platform.

With $8.6 trillion in assets under management (AUM), BlackRock is one of the largest investment firms in the world. In an interview for CNBC, BlackRock CIO Rick Rieder stated in February they had “started to dabble” in Bitcoin.

According to the document, BlackRock invested $6.5 million in 37 futures contracts on the CME BTC-based derivatives. At the time of the allocation, BlackRock’s position was estimated to roughly represent far less than 1% of the firm’s investment fund. The firm claims gains of $360,000 on its initial investment. There is speculation that the contracts expired on March 26.

In the interview, Rieder stated that the current macroeconomic environment has forced investors to look for storehouses of value. Assets such as BTC offer appreciation and hedge against inflation, Rieder added:

My sense is the technology has evolved and the regulation has evolved to the point where a number of people find it should be part of the portfolio, so that’s what’s driving the price up (…). I wouldn’t put a number on the percentage allocation one should have, depends on what the rest of your portfolio looks like.

6% of Bitcoin supply held by institutions

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $58,722 with gains of 0.7% on the 24-hour chart. On the weekly and monthly chart, BTC posts gains of 8% and 31.1% respectively with a market cap of $1.09 trillion.

Bitcoin BTC
BTC on the rise in the 24-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview

Earlier, Goldman Sachs announced the launch of its Bitcoin offering for its wealthiest clients. Comprised of a selection of products including Bitcoin futures and direct exposure to the cryptocurrency, the banking institution stated that they received pressure from their clients.

Something similar claimed Morgan Stanley a few weeks ago when it announced the rollout of 3 funds that will give exposure to BTC for its clients with accounts of more than $5 million. In recent days, cases of institutional adoption of BTC have been on the rise. Many represent a radical change in the institutions’ stance.

Data from Bitcoin Treasuries indicates that institutions that have purchased BTC are in possession of about 6.54% of its total supply or $79,494,670,635. MicroStrategy holds the largest amount with 0.4% of the supply or 91,326 BTC, followed by Tesla with 48,000 BTC and 0.2% of the supply.