Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Fund reveals exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF

Key Takeaways

• Morgan Stanley's Institutional Fund allocated 2.1% to BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF and 4% to MicroStrategy.
• Five of the six largest global asset managers now have Bitcoin-related investments or services.

Morgan Stanley reported 2.1% exposure to BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) IBIT in its Institutional Fund. In a Sept. 4 filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the asset manager reported over $10 million in net assets, which represents roughly $211,000 in IBIT’s shares.

Additionally, Morgan Stanley’s fund also reported a 4% allocation to MicroStrategy, which holds 226,500 BTC in its treasury. Both IBIT and MicroStrategy investments are part of the ten largest holdings of the fund.

The Institutional Fund is one of the portfolios managed by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global. According to its website , Counterpoint Global “seeks to make long-term investments in unique companies whose market value can increase significantly for underlying fundamental reasons.” 

Thus, considering the 2% allocation into IBIT’s shares out of 216 Institutional Fund’s holdings, it can be said that the Counterpoint Global team sees value in Bitcoin for the long term.

Largest asset managers bullish on Bitcoin

Morgan Stanley is the sixth-largest asset manager in the world, with over $1.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) reported in April.

On Aug. 2, the asset manager gave the green light for its 15,000 advisors to recommend allocations into US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs, starting with BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC.

Later in the same month, the firm reported holding nearly $187 million in IBIT’s shares in a 13F filing to the SEC.

Notably, five of the six largest asset managers in the world are somewhat related to Bitcoin. BlackRock is the asset manager behind the IBIT, which is the largest Bitcoin ETF by inflows, inching closer to $21 billion as per Farside Investors’ data . 

Fidelity is the fourth largest asset manager by AUM, holding $4.9 trillion. The company is also behind the spot Bitcoin ETF FBTC, which amounts to roughly $9.7 billion in inflows and is the second-largest crypto ETF.

State Street made a partnership with Galaxy Digital in July to add Bitcoin to its investment strategies. Meanwhile, UBS is an authorized participant in BlackRock’s IBIT.

The only big asset manager of the group left out is Vanguard, which refused to acknowledge crypto’s investment case and stated that it won’t offer Bitcoin ETFs to its customers. 

Despite these remarks, Vanguard’s new CEO, Salim Ramji, was the head of the iShares division at BlackRock and was directly involved with IBIT’s formulation.