Morgan Stanley Massively Increases Bitcoin Exposure Through Microstrategy

Global investment bank Morgan Stanley has increased its bitcoin exposure manyfold by investing in Microstrategy, the Nasdaq-listed company which currently holds about 70,470 bitcoins. Morgan Stanley now has a 10.9% stake in Microstrategy.

‘Even Banks Want Bitcoin’

Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley has significantly increased its exposure to bitcoin, the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday shows.

Morgan Stanley has declared that it now owns 792,627 shares of Microstrategy. The Nasdaq-listed company has been stacking bitcoin over the past six months and now holds about 70,470 bitcoins in its treasury. At the current BTC price, Microstrategy’s bitcoin stash is worth nearly $2.9 billion. Morgan Stanley’s investment represents a 10.9% stake in Microstrategy whose share price recently soared to $531.64.

According to analyst Kevin Rooke, Morgan Stanley held 142,908 shares of Microstrategy in the third quarter. Commenting on the investment bank’s latest investment, he tweeted Friday:

That’s actually a 455% increase, up from 142,908 shares in Q3 … Even the banks want bitcoin.

Microstrategy was the first major public company to make bitcoin its primary reserve asset. Its pro-bitcoin CEO Michael Saylor said in December that his company now had “an aggregate of 70,470 bitcoins purchased for $1.125 billion at an average price of $15,964 per bitcoin.” Microstrategy’s bold move into BTC had caused Citigroup to downgrade its stock to a sell rating. However, the market continued to favor the company as its share price has surged almost 86% since the downgrade and it is up 25% year-to-date.

Since Microstrategy’s major bitcoin buys, a number of other institutional investors have revealed that they have also invested in BTC or have plans to do so in the near future. They include Blackrock, Massmutual, Ruffer, and Skybridge. Meanwhile, bitcoin’s price has repeatedly hit record highs. JPMorgan has predicted that the price of the cryptocurrency could reach $146,000 while Guggenheim Investments sees bitcoin’s value at $400,000.