Morgan Stanley Discloses $270M in Grayscale’s Spot Bitcoin ETFs 

Morgan Stanley disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that as of March 31, it had more than $270 million in U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). 

The investment bank reported that it holds $269.9 million in Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF, making it the third-largest holder of GBTC shares after Susquehanna ($1.1 billion) and Horizon Kinetics ($946 million). In addition, it disclosed a modest $2.3 milion in Ark Invest’s spot Bitcoin ETF, placing it among the top 20 ARKB holdings. 

Morgan Stanley is one of hundreds of institutional investors that have revealed their positions in spot Bitcoin ETFs. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo both stated in 13-F filings that they owned spot Bitcoin ETFs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. 

Last week, Bracebridge Capital emerged as a top holding of Ark Invest’s ARKB and BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin ETFs, with a sizable commitment to Grayscale’s GBTC. Its total spot Bitcoin ETF holdings were worth $434 million as of March 31. 

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board also recently disclosed a $163 million stake in BlackRock and Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETFs.  

However, investment management firm Millennium Management outperformed all previous recent disclosures by revealing in its 13-F filing last week that it owns about $2 billion in spot Bitcoin ETFs, more than $202 million of which are on Grayscale’s GBTC. 

However, not all traditional financial institutions have embraced spot Bitcoin ETFs. Vanguard, the asset management juggernaut, has often expressed its opposition to cryptocurrency, and its recently appointed CEO, Salim Ramji, stated last week that he has no plans to alter the firm’s view. 

These 13F filings are required quarterly reports produced by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management.