Morgan Stanley has increased its exposure to bitcoin (BTC) again. The major US investment bank recently doubled the number of shares owned by one of its funds of Grayscale Investments.
A document filed Sept. 27 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals that Morgan Stanley now owns 58,116 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, with the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund.
The price of the GBTC shares at the time of writing is around $34.28. That means this Morgan Stanley bitcoin investment is worth about $2 million. The bank reports that it has paid approximately $2.4 million. The loss has to do with the falling bitcoin price this month.
The Morgan Stanley fund is aimed at companies it deems “undervalued at the time of purchase”. Morgan Stanley sees the price of bitcoin rising in the future. The bank also invested in bitcoin via Grayscale in August through other funds.
Morgan Stanley launched a new crypto investment division a few weeks ago. The department will examine the impact of crypto mainly on fixed income and equities. Dennis Lynch of Morgan Stanley recently compared bitcoin to Kenny of Southpark: “He dies every episode and then is back.” He was referring to all the times bitcoin was declared dead and then came back stronger.
The Grayscale funds are popular among institutional investors who are often not allowed to invest directly in cryptocurrencies. The fund manager reports on September 27 that it manages a whopping $39.5 billion in crypto:
09/27/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
Total AUM: $39.5 billion$BTC $BAT $BCH $LINK $MANA $ETH $ETC $FIL $ZEN $LTC $LPT $XLM $ZEC $UNIA $AAVE $COMP $CRV $MKR $SUSHIA $SNX $YFI $UMA $BNT $ADA pic.twitter.com/loRfEoFHVN
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) September 27, 2021