Morgan Stanley to add Bitcoin as eligible investment to multiple institutional funds

After reports surfaced earlier about Morgan Stanley’s intention to reportedly provide its clients access to funds that will allow Bitcoin ownership, the investment banking firm has now decided to enable Bitcoin exposure in several institutional funds. The multinational company today declared

in a filing with US Securities and Exchange Commission that it will offer exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency as an investment option through the shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) or cash-settled futures. 

According to the filing which was published by SEC on 31 March 2021, the company wrote: 

Certain Funds may have exposure to 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. To the extent a Fund invests in bitcoin futures or GBTC, it will do so through a wholly-owned subsidiary, which is organized as an exempted company under the laws of the Cayman Islands (each, a “Subsidiary”). A Fund may at times have no exposure to Bitcoin.

The filing mentioned a list of funds which includes Advantage Portfolio, Asia Opportunity Portfolio, Counterpoint Global Portfolio, Developing Opportunity Portfolio, Global Advantage Portfolio, Global Opportunity Portfolio, among others: 

Last month, the investment bank sent an internal memo to its financial advisors regarding access to three funds that offer Bitcoin exposure. Two of these aforementioned funds are from Mike Novogratzs’ crypto company Galaxy Digital. The third fund was jointly offered by FS Investments, an asset management company, and NYDIG, a Bitcoin-focused investment group. 

The investment banking entity decided to allow only wealthy clients the ability to access Bitcoin, as they were believed to have “an aggressive risk tolerance.” These clients would need to have at least $2 million in assets held by the firm, while investment companies would require at least $5 million to qualify.