Morgan Stanley invests $3,6 million in bitcoin through Grayscale’s fund

The purchase of the shares was done with the help of the company’s European fund

09.01.2023 - 09:25

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What’s new? US investment bank Morgan Stanley began buying shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) through its European subsidiary. In total, Morgan Stanley purchased GBTC of $3,6 million. This is reported in the company’s October 31, 2022 report.

The full version of the report

What is known about Morgan Stanley? It is an American financial conglomerate founded in 1935. Its main activities include stock and bond offerings, trading on stock exchanges and other exchanges, and asset management. At the end of 2021, Morgan Stanley had $6,5 trillion in assets under management.

What else is known? Morgan Stanley’s report notes that the fund can invest up to 25% of its assets in a wholly-owned subsidiary. Meanwhile, the subsidiary can invest in bitcoin indirectly through cash futures or indirectly through investments in GBTC.

The European Opportunity Fund subsidiary owns British, Italian, French, Swiss, and Dutch equities and invests in high-quality developed and emerging companies located in Europe that the investment team believes are undervalued at the time of purchase. The European Opportunity Fund has total assets of $1 billion.

In December, Grayscale allowed the sale of up to 20% of the bitcoin trust shares. This will happen if the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust fails to convert into an exchange-traded fund.

Earlier, former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack acknowledged that digital assets have several advantages over the traditional financial sector. He noted that cryptocurrencies will play a key role in the digitization of the economy. According to Mack, perhaps in 50 years, virtual assets will become the basis of monetary transactions.

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