Banking giant with $6,5 trillion assets now holds Bitcoin and drives adoption with Blackrock

• Banking giant, Morgan Stanley has allocated $3.6 million to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
• The bet on Bitcoin shows a growing trend among big financial firms including BlackRock.

American multinational banking giant, Morgan Stanley has added Bitcoin (BTC) as one of the assets it is managing for its clients. As reported by Trust Nodes, the bank’s investment in Bitcoin was made through its Europe Opportunity Fund with direct investment in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

According to the company’s filing, its total investment in GBTC came in at $3.6 million, a buy that comes at a time when the broader crypto market is struggling to regain its long-lost luster.

The Fund may, consistent with its principal investment strategies, invest up to 25% of its total assets in a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fund,

it says, adding,

The Subsidiary may invest in bitcoin indirectly through cash settled futures or indirectly through investments in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (“GBTC”), a privately offered investment vehicle that invests in bitcoin.

Investing in Bitcoin directly or indirectly does not come as an everyday occurrence in the banking sector. While many banks, as spearheaded by the likes of Morgan Stanley are now warming up to crypto and blockchain-related offerings, their role has been strict to offer services bordering on OTC trading, and crypto custody amongst others.

Investing in GBTC is a show of trust in Bitcoin as Grayscale is known for investing the capital realized from investors to hold spot Bitcoin directly. With this push from Morgan Stanley, a new frontier has been unleashed, one that helps the banking giant to establish its footing as one of the first major pioneers of the nascent crypto world.

While Morgan Stanley’s Europe Opportunity Fund is known to invest in British, Italian, French, Swiss, and Dutch equities, its investment in Bitcoin is considered a very essential avenue to diversify its holdings.

The firm reiterated the fact that its aim for betting on Bitcoin is 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.”

Banking Giant Walking in the Path of BlackRock

The investment in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and by extension Bitcoin is considered as a growing trend and a vote of confidence in determining the future of the premier cryptocurrency. In what now comes off as a trend, BlackRock, arguably the largest investment management firm in the world, has also added Bitcoin to its $15 trillion Global Allocation Fund.

Unlike Morgan Stanley which invested indirectly, BlackRock’s investments are reportedly made directly into the coin. 

The duo of BlackRock and Morgan Stanley are playing a very pivotal role in fueling the adoption of Bitcoin on Wall Street. While Nasdaq-listed MicroStrategy currently ranks as the biggest corporate accumulator of the digital currency, the investments from BlackRock and Morgan Stanley will grant a more recognized Vote of Confidence for the asset class than MicroStrategy’s.

The cryptocurrency has maintained its rally since the Morgan Stanley acquisition news broke and it is currently trading at $17,454.32, up 1.09% over the past 24 hours.