Report: Morgan Stanley Fund Holds 28,000 Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Views It as a “Long-Term” Investment

According to the NPORT-P (Monthly Portfolio Report) submitted by Morgan Stanley's The Europe Opportunity Fund to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Morgan Stanley's investment fund held at least 28,289 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares on April 30. At the current price of $31.13 per share, it is equivalent to about $880,636.

However, at the time of filing, the stock price was estimated at $1,325,339. This is because the value of GBTC shares is directly tied to the price of Bitcoin, resulting in wild fluctuations. According to cryptocurrency data platform Coingecko, on April 30, Bitcoin was trading at around $54,000-56,000, but has now slipped to around $35,000.

The SEC filing also shows that the fund’s Bitcoin investment accounts for approximately 0.5367% of its total net assets. In addition, the “return profile” is reported as “long-term,” which indicates that the stocks in question are considered long-term investments.

According to its website, Morgan Stanley's Europe Opportunity Fund seeks to maximize capital appreciation by "investing primarily in high-quality established and emerging companies located in Europe that the investment team believes are undervalued at the time of purchase."

Grayscale Investments is currently the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager. According to the company’s latest report, Grayscale currently manages $31.5 billion worth of various cryptocurrencies.

The company’s Bitcoin Trust is by far the largest investment vehicle, at $23.16 billion. It’s followed by the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, at $6.82 billion. Grayscale’s other cryptocurrency-focused funds range in size from $369 million to $3 million.

In mid-March, Morgan Stanley became the first major U.S. bank to offer Bitcoin funds to its high-net-worth clients, such as FS NYDIG Select Fund, Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP and Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP.

Recently, investment company ARK Invest has also begun to use Grayscale GBTC to indirectly invest in Bitcoin. On June 24, as the price of Bitcoin fell below $30,000, the company purchased 1,046,002 shares of GBTC for a total of approximately $29 million. This purchase increased ARK's GBTC holdings to 8.6 million shares (approximately $238.9 million).

According to a recent report from cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode, institutional investors are losing interest in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, with GBTC shares trading at a steep discount.