From recent regulatory findings, Morgan Stanley is allowing several of its mutual funds to invest directly in Bitcoin. The findings actually mention that ‘’certain funds” can now go ahead and get “exposure to bitcoin indirectly.” This move by one of the United States’ most renown investment banks, has given immense exposure to Bitcoin.
Using Grayscale Bitcoin trust and cash-settled futures, Morgan Stanely is certainly opening up bitcoin to investors. Each of the funds listed, can put in a maximum investment of 25% of its combined assets to Bitcoin.
What Is The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust About?
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust popularly abbreviated as BTC is a way for investors to trade Bitcoin directly on a Securities Exchange. This novel type of fund is owned by Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company. The fund which debuted in 2013 allows investors access to BTC exposure through a private trust. The trust is the vehicle through which BTC can trade directly with the US stock market.
GBTC’s growth continues to scale. As of April, the fund held 654,885 Bitcoin. This is about 46% of the 1.4 million BTC that publicly traded companies hold presently. Inarguably, that makes the GBTC the world’s largest Bitcoin fund.
GBTC isn’t the only Bitcoin fund. Following it very closely is the Bitcoin product from ETC Group. This fund had a $1.2 billion market cap as of April. Then there is Wisdom Tree’s Bitcoin product. This product has an impressive market cap worth $329.6 million.
Morgan Stanley’s Involvement In Cryptocurrency
Undoubtedly, the megabank Morgan Stanely has put impressive effort into growing their reach in the crypto space. The bank’s key mission has been to invest in emerging and established companies across Europe, but reports show they are also inclining efforts elsewhere.
Since April, Morgan Stanley has kept gaining exposure to BTC. Following the announcement that it would be adding Bitcoin exposure to 12 investment funds, the bank owned 28,298 GBTC, valued at an estimated $1.3 million. Subsequent to this, reports from the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC showed that Morgan Stanley owned 58,116 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares as of 31st July. This is a staggering 105% increase from what the bank had in April.
The bank, which is also a proponent of the metaverse, funded Securitize with $48 million. Securitize is a tokenization platform that stems from Coinbase. It is a move that marked the bank’s premier blockchain capital investment foray.
This move earmarks Morgan Stanely’s interest in cryptocurrency. Despite allowing only indirect investments in Bitcoin, there’s room for things to change in the future. This could also explain why the bank launched a product for Bitcoin investment funds. Unfortunately, these products are a reserve for clients with high net-worths only.