Banking giant Morgan Stanley has made a nine-figure investment in the digital currency investment product Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
GBTC gives institutional investors exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) as shares are based on the performance of the top crypto.
Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show the financial titan invested in GBTC through four different funds.
The investment bank’s Insight Fund – which has $8.1 billion in assets – purchased 928,051 shares of GBTC worth $36.19 million.
The Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, with net assets worth $5.63 billion, made up the bank’s biggest investments in GBTC. It bought a total of 4,772,064 shares worth $186.11 million in 12 separate purchases.
The Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust (Discovery Portfolio), which has net assets worth $5.1 billion. bought 611,868 shares worth $23.86 million.
The Morgan Stanley Variable Insurance Fund, which has net assets worth $237.44 million, made two separate purchases for a total of 179,703 shares worth over $7 million
The four funds bought a total of 6,491,686 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust worth $253.17 million. According to the SEC documents, Morgan Stanley’s round of investments was made prior to the June 30th reporting period, suggesting that the banking giant loaded up on GBTC shares while Bitcoin was trading close to $30,000.
Morgan Stanley’s big GBTC purchase comes amid a year-long wave of crypto adoption from large banking players. Last week, a Bloomberg report revealed that financial behemoth Citigroup was working to allow institutional clients access to Bitcoin futures trading products.
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