HomeCryptoBitcoinMorgan Stanley buys more shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

Morgan Stanley buys more shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

Morgan Stanley, the investment banking giant in the US, has bought more shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, bringing its total holdings to over $300 million in BTC exposure.

Morgan Stanley accumulates shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

According to an SEC filing, Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. increased its holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) stock at the end of Q3, for three of its funds: Growth Portfolio, Insight Fund and Global Opportunity Portfolio.

MacroScope’s Twitter channel shared the news with a roundup of tweets:

“In new SEC filings, Morgan Stanley has disclosed a dramatic increase in Bitcoin exposure in its asset management business.

Earlier this year, Morgan reported buying Grayscale BTC in a large number of investment funds. For the three funds with the largest Grayscale holdings…

Here are the changes that were just disclosed:

Growth Portfolio (as of June 30): 2,130,153 shares

Growth Portfolio (as of Sept 30): 3,642,118 shares

Insight Fund (as of June 30): 928,051 shares

Insight Fund (as of Sept 30): 1,520,549 shares

Global Opportunity Portfolio (as of June 30): 919,805 shares

Global Opportunity Portfolio (as of Sept 30): 1,463,714 shares

Other Morgan funds that own Grayscale BTC also showed large percentage increases”.

In percentages, the increase in GBTC shares for the three Morgan Stanley funds for Q3 compared to Q2 were 71%, 63% and 59% respectively.

The total amount of GBTC shares held through the three funds thus reached 6,626,381, worth about $307 million at current prices.

Morgan Stanley and GBTC shares discounted from February 2021

Morgan Stanley has reportedly continued with the accumulation of GBTC despite the steep discount that the shares have had since February between the market price of GBTC shares and their net asset value (NAV).

Basically, the share price is lower than the current value of the Bitcoin they represent and according to YCharts data, GBTC’s current discount is -12.32%.

According to a report, this means that as of 29 October 2021, the value of Bitcoin has increased by 95% since the beginning of the year, however, one of the largest Bitcoin-focused funds in the industry has only returned 42% over the same period

The US investment giant reportedly began buying GBTC as of last June 2021, through its Europe Opportunity Fund which bought 28,289 shares.

Morgan Stanley Grayscale Bitcoin Trust
Grayscale wants to convert its Bitcoin Trust in ETFs

Grayscale and the conversion of its Trusts into ETFs

Discounts or not, Grayscale is also initiating a process to convert its Trust into an ETF.

Last month, Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of Digital Currency Group, to which Grayscale belongs, posted a tweet advising against buying and holding futures-based ETFs.

In conversation with other users, when asked when the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF based on spot BTC, i.e. on the tokens directly held by the fund, will take place, Silbert was hopeful, as if such a conversion will take place soon.

After all, it’s also not news that Grayscale is also working with BNY Mellon to bring an ETF based on Bitcoin to the US market.

 

Stefania Stimolo
Stefania Stimolo
Graduated in Marketing and Communication, Stefania is an explorer of innovative opportunities. She started out as a Sales Assistant for e-commerce, and in 2016 she began to develop a passion for the digital world, initially in the Network Marketing sector, where she discovered and became passionate about the ideals behind Bitcoin and Blockchain technology, which lead her to work as a copywriter and translator for ICO projects and blogs, and organize introductory courses.
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