Morgan Stanley Boosts Over 10% Stake In Bitcoin (BTC)-backer MicroSrategy

Almost every big financial institution in the world has started believing in the Bitcoin (BTC) story. Even the strong Bitcoin critics aka banking institutions are considering exposure to the world’s third-largest asset class in one or the other way.

As per the latest Bloomberg report, American banking multinational Morgan Stanley increased its stake to more than 10% in public listed company and Bitcoin-backer MicroStrategy, last year in 2020. As per the latest SEC filing, the banking giant’s investment wing held 792,627 shares of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) by end of December 2020.

This amounts to a 10.9% stake in the bank that roughly translates to over $500 million as per the MSTR stock price and valuations on Friday closing. Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy has been the biggest proponent of Bitcoin. His business intelligence firm MicroStrategy has been doing heavy investments in Bitcoin during the third and fourth quarter of 2020.

Just last month itself, the company increased its BTC holdings by investing an additional $650 million from convertible notes. By the end of 2020, MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin investments stood at 70,470 coins pouring around $1.2 billion at an average BTC price of $15,964 per BTC. But as of the current BTC price, the company’s total net BTC holdings stand at over $3 billion, a whopping 2.5x returns.

MicroStrategy Stock (NASDAQ: MSTR) Gives 3.5x Returns

Interestingly, the MSTR shares have also skyrocketed in the last four months since September 2020. From under $150, the share price has surged all the way above $500 giving investors 3.5x returns in a very short period of time.

The Bloomberg report notes that along with Morgan Stanley there are other big financial institutions invested in MicroStrategy. The report states:

“Other top holders of MicroStrategy have included First Trust Advisors, BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from periodic filings”.

In his recent tweet, Morgan Creek Digital founder and Bitcoin evangelist Anthony Pompliano wrote:

“Given the current circumstances, we are about to see which financial advisors are open minded & which ones are aren’t. Basically every institution on Wall Street is buying bitcoin. Are you gonna get your clients exposure now or do you still think you’re smarter than everyone?”

World’s largest digital asset manager Grayscale has also reported massive interest from institutions over the last few months. The company’s newly appointed CEO Michael Sonnenshien recently said that even pension funds and endowments have started showing interest in BTC via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) which now has more than $24 billion in assets under management.

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