Key Points
- Morgan Stanley has revealed holdings of over $270 million in US spot Bitcoin ETFs in a recent SEC filing.
- The bank is the third-largest holder of GBTC shares and among the top 20 holders of ARKB.
Morgan Stanley, a global investment bank and financial services firm, recently made public its holdings in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which are valued at more than $270 million as of the end of the first quarter. This information was disclosed in a quarterly 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Details of the Holdings
The bank holds $269.9 million in Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF, making it the third-largest holder of GBTC shares. This is behind Susquehanna’s $1.1 billion and Horizon Kinetics’s $946 million. In addition, Morgan Stanley also disclosed a smaller $2.3 million allocation to Ark Invest’s spot Bitcoin ETF, putting it in the top 20 ARKB holders.
These 13F filings are mandatory quarterly reports submitted by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management. They provide a glimpse of the manager’s stock holdings at the end of each quarter. However, they only require the disclosure of long positions in U.S. equities and options on equities, so they only offer a partial view of an investment manager’s overall portfolio strategy.
Increasing Institutional Ownership
Morgan Stanley is among many institutional investors that have declared U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in their first-quarter 13F filings. For instance, Millennium Management is now the largest known holder in this category with a combined $1.94 billion in shares as of March 31, spread across five funds.
Last week, Bracebridge Capital also emerged as a top holder of Ark Invest’s ARKB and BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin ETFs, with a significant allocation of Grayscale’s GBTC. Its combined spot Bitcoin ETF holdings were valued at $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. Additionally, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan stated that the recent 13F filings with the SEC are just a “down payment”, and he expects the total AUM to approach $5 billion by the May 15 filing deadline.
On Wednesday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $303 million in net inflows, led by Fidelity’s FBTC with $131.3 million worth of net inflows. Ark Invest’s ARKB and Grayscale’s GBTC generated $38.6 million and $27 million in net inflows respectively.
