By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
Crypto Investment Funds have become an attraction for institutional investors as they opt for indirect exposure to digital currencies. US banking firm Morgan Stanley made a significant venture in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Fund (GBTC), buying $250 million worth of Bitcoin Fund shares. However, this is not the first crypto-based investment of the US bank.
According to reports on filings submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the $25 million investment was not only through one Fund, but via four different funds which includes Morgan Stanley’s Insight Fund, Institutional Fund, Institutional Fund Trust (Discovery Portfolio), and Variable Insurance Fund. Each of these funds invested different amounts in GBTC, and adding the invested amounts makes up the whopping $250 million.
Morgan Stanley Insight Fund Buys Highest Number of GBTC Shares
Through its Insight Fund- already holding assets worth $8.1 billion- Morgan Stanley bought over 920,000 shares of GBTC that amounts to 36.19 million in USD. More than 4.5 million Bitcoin Fund shares were acquired through its Institutional Fund, bringing the cumulative amount of purchased shares to $186.11 million. Prior to its GBTC investment via this fund, Morgan had on its balance sheets assets worth $5.63 billion, and made 12 different buys for the Institutional Fund investment.
Also read:Morgan Stanley’s two other funds made GBTC investments valued at $23.86 billion and $7 million, respectively. Like the former two, these two also had assets in their possession prior to the recent acquisition, with each estimated to be $5.1 billion and $237.44 billion. While the Investment Fund (Discovery Portfolio) purchased exactly 611,686 shares of GBTC, the Variable Insurance Fund got involved in GBTC with almost 180,000 shares.
Altogether, Morgan Stanley’s four funds purchased a sum of 6,491,686 shares also valued at $253 million from Grayscale Bitcoin Fund (GBTC). However, these investments are not recent, as per SEC filing. They had been made since June, when BTC was still trading at the $30k region. Clearly, they purchased the shares on discounts because Bitcoin is now above the $40k price mark.
Mainstream Crypto Adoption on the Rise
Lately, mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies has been steadily increasing, seeing big players in the sector trying to acquire some crypto assets. But it seems they only have eyes for flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in light of the recent investments and acquisitions. Perhaps by the time they are done with Bitcoin, they shift their focus on Trusts on Ethereum and other relevant digital currency.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, it was reported that asset management firm Grayscale holds the largest amount of Bitcoin globally. Grayscale also has other funds such as the Large Multicap Fund which features Ethereum, Cardano and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), DeFi Fund and a host of less popular funds. An unlocking event of GBTC occurs after 12 months, which is the duration for the maturity of the investments. The last unlocking event took place on July 19
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