Major U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley has more than doubled its shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust since April.<\/p>\n
According to a report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filed Sept. 27, the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund, which invests in established and emerging companies throughout Europe, owned 58,116 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, as of July 31. At the time of publication, the price of GBTC is $34.28, making the investment bank\u2019s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) roughly $2 million \u2014 Morgan Stanley reported the shares cost $2.4 million.<\/p>\n
Previous filings show that Morgan Stanley has increased its shares of GBTC by more than 105% since April. Cointelegraph reported in June that the investment bank held 28,298 GBTC, worth roughly $1.3 million at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morgan Stanley has been gaining more exposure to BTC in 2021.\u00a0The firm\u2019s Europe Opportunity Fund aims at maximum capital appreciation by investing in \u201chigh quality established and emerging\u201d Europe-based companies that the team considers \u201cundervalued at the time of purchase.”<\/p>\n
In April, the investment bank announced it would be adding Bitcoin exposure to 12 investment funds through Grayscale and cash-settled futures. The bank later led a $48 million funding round for Securitize, a Coinbase-backed tokenization platform \u2014 the action represented Morgan Stanley\u2019s first capital investment foray into blockchain.<\/p>\n