Morgan Stanley Discloses Holdings of $269.9 Million in Spot Bitcoin ETFs

Morgan Stanley has disclosed in a document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it owns $269.9 million of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Btrust (GBTC) as of the end of Q1. This revelation is part of a growing pattern of institutional investors flocking into the cryptocurrency market.

This comes after JPMorgan announced it had over $730,000 in holdings of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Bitwise’s BITB, Fidelity’s FBTC, and GBTC. Wells Fargo also reported $141,817 in GBTC holdings. Similar disclosures have been made by BNP Paribas and BNY Mellon.

It’s important to note that these purchases were either made on behalf of the institutions’ wealth management clients or were necessary for market making and to fulfill the responsibilities of authorized participants in the exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Morgan Stanley began offering spot Bitcoin ETF allocations to its clients shortly after these funds were approved in January, but this was done on an unsolicited basis, meaning the clients had to suggest the investment to the broker.

After this news Bitcoin price has reached up to $72k overnight. Resistant levels for short positions are broken yesterday. Seems like bull run is alive baby. Solana achieves above $180 price point and Ethereum is rocking below $3800 for the first time since the end of April.