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Morgan Stanley’s institutional fund has allocated 2.1% to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and 4% to MicroStrategy. Among the world’s six largest asset management companies, five currently have investments or services related to Bitcoin.
Morgan Stanley reported that its institutional fund holds a 2.1% stake in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT. In a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 4, the asset management company disclosed that its net assets exceed $10 million, equating to approximately $211,000 in IBIT shares.
Additionally, the fund reported a 4% allocation to MicroStrategy, a company that holds 226,500 BTC. Both IBIT and MicroStrategy investments are among the fund’s top ten holdings.
The institutional fund is one of the portfolios managed by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global. According to its website, Counterpoint Global “seeks long-term investments in unique companies whose market value could increase significantly for fundamental reasons.”
Given that 2% of the 216 institutional funds’ holdings are allocated to IBIT shares, it can be said that the Counterpoint Global team sees long-term value in Bitcoin.
Major Asset Managers Favor Bitcoin
Morgan Stanley is the world’s sixth-largest asset management company, reporting in April that its assets under management (AUM) exceed $1.5 trillion.
On August 2, the asset management company approved its 15,000 advisors to recommend allocations in U.S.-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs, starting with BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC.
Later that month, the company reported in a 13F filing with the SEC that it holds nearly $187 million worth of IBIT shares.
Notably, five of the world’s six largest asset management companies have some relationship with Bitcoin. BlackRock, the asset management company behind IBIT, has the largest inflows among Bitcoin ETFs, with nearly $21 billion according to Farside Investors.
Fidelity, the fourth-largest asset management company by AUM, holds $4.9 trillion in assets. It also has a spot Bitcoin ETF, FBTC, which has inflows of approximately $9.7 billion, making it the second-largest cryptocurrency ETF.
State Street partnered with Galaxy Digital in July to incorporate Bitcoin into its investment strategy. Meanwhile, UBS is an authorized participant in BlackRock’s IBIT.
The only major asset management company excluded from this group is Vanguard, which has refused to acknowledge the investment case for crypto and stated it will not offer Bitcoin ETFs to its clients.
Despite these statements, Vanguard’s new CEO, Salim Ramji, was previously the head of BlackRock’s iShares division and was directly involved in the creation of IBIT.
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