According to a Form 13F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 14, Morgan Stanley reported owning 5,500,626 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of June 30. The investment was valued at $187.8 million at the end of June.

The filing notes under “Investment Discretion” state that all of the shares are allocated to Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc., which makes it a new position.

This makes Morgan Stanley a top five holder of the IBIT fund, reported MacroScope.

In a 13F filing today, Morgan Stanley reported owning 5,500,626 shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust as of June 30 (valued at $187,791,372 as of that date).

The filing notes under Investment Discretion that all 5.5 million shares are allocated to Morgan Stanley Investment… https://t.co/SKL9AF2R3V

MacroScope (@MacroScope17) August 14, 2024

Big Banks Buying Bitcoin

The SEC Form 13F is a quarterly report that all institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management are required to file. The investment bank also disclosed additional investments in shares of the other Bitcoin ETFs, including those from Fidelity, Valkyrie, Bitwise, Invesco Galaxy, and Proshares.

Morgan Stanley also reported holdings of around $148,000 in shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and $1.6 million in the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB). Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley reportedly authorized its 15,000 financial advisers to start recommending Bitcoin ETFs to clients.

In addition to Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs also disclosed its Bitcoin ETFs in a 13F filing, revealing that it had acquired about $418 million for its clients in several of the recently launched products. Most of that sum reflected a stake of nearly seven million shares in IBIT valued at about $238 million as of June 30.

Goldman also took large stakes in Fidelity, Invesco Galaxy, and smaller positions in several other Bitcoin ETFs, reported Reuters.

In a post on X on Aug. 14, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan commented on the growing interest from institutions in crypto ETFs during Q2 when asset prices declined.

“Institutional investors continued to adopt bitcoin ETFs in Q2. The trend is intact.”

However, spot Bitcoin ETF flows in the U.S. have turned negative again, with an outflow of $81.4 million for Aug. 14, according to preliminary data from Farside Investors.

BTC Price Outlook

Bitcoin prices are also in the red today, with a 4.7% daily decline to $58,000 at the time of writing. Moreover, the liquidity heatmap suggests it could fall further.

The asset has remained rangebound since recovering slightly from its big dump below $50,000 on Aug. 5.