US investment bank Morgan Stanley -2.91% has been raising its Bitcoin (BTC) +1.18% exposure gradually since the beginning of the year. The bank uses the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) for its crypto needs according to an SEC filing.
The Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund owned 28,298 shares of Grayscale as of April 30th 2021, totalling around $1.3 million. As of July 31st of this year the Fund owned 58,116 GBTC shares worth $2.018 million.
Why is the investment bank nearly doubling their Bitcoin holdings within a time frame of three months? Crypto is becoming more and more important as a digital asset, in the institutional investment world.
Head of Morgan Stanley’s asset management subsidiary Counterpoint, Dennis Lynch recently spoke to the crowd at the Morningstar annual investment conference about why he invested in Bitcoin himself.
Lynch and Counterpoint are unrelated to the bank’s Europe Opportunity Fund, however it showcases that Morgan Stanley is getting more involved with crypto. “I like the idea here that you can bet small, win big,” (Business Insider, 2021) Lynch explains.
“I like to say that bitcoin is like Kenny from South Park, he dies every episode and comes back again. […] And so… you see in the newspaper, the media, that bitcoin’s dead, it’s over this time, and it just continues to persist.” (Business Insider, 2021).
Crypto has had a crazy year, with prices of popular coins, like Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) +1.04% rocketing only to crash hard and take off again. Currently, BTC is trading at around $41,000 up 300% in the past year.
Morgan Stanley is not the only bank slowly growing its exposure to crypto, JPMorgan (JPM) -0.54% opened access to crypto for its retail wealth clients in July this year. Included in the exposure was also the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
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*Shumba, Camomile (28. September 2021). Business Insider: Morgan Stanley doubled down on its bitcoin exposure by buying into the Grayscale Trust: filing. Last viewed on 29.09.2021 on https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/morgan-stanley-doubles-down-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-shares-2018-million-2021-9.
