Morgan Stanley disclosed in its first-quarter 2013 information that it invested $269.9 million in the Grayscale GBTC for the spot BTC ETF.
According to Fintel data, this investment made Morgan Stanley one of the largest holders of GBTC, second only to Susquehanna International Group’s $1 billion investment.
Morgan Stanley is also one of the global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) that have disclosed investments in spot BTC ETFs, along with Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and UBS Group.
Other companies have also disclosed investments in spot BTC ETFs.
On May 14th, New York consulting firm Pine Ridge Advisers disclosed a $205.8 million investment in spot BTC ETFs, with investments of $83.2 million in BlackRock’s IBIT, $93.4 million in Fidelity’s FBTC, and $29.3 million in Bitwise’s BITB.
New York-based hedge fund management firm Boothbay Fund Management disclosed a $377 million investment in spot BTC ETFs, including $149.8 million in IBIT, $105.5 million in FBTC, $69.5 million in GBTC, and $52.3 million in BITB.
In addition, alternative asset management company Aristeia Capital LLC disclosed a $163.4 million investment in IBIT on May 15th, and investment firm Graham Capital Management, based in Connecticut, disclosed $98.8 million in IBIT and $3.8 million in FBTC.
Hedge fund management company Crcm Lp disclosed a $96.6 million investment in IBIT, and New York investment management company Fortress Investment Group LLC disclosed holdings of $53.6 million in IBIT.
The latest filings were submitted before the deadline for the first-quarter 13F reports, marking the end of the first quarter for most spot BTC ETFs.
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, commented on the recent wave of filings, estimating that by the May 15th deadline, over 700 professional firms will have invested nearly $5 billion.
Hougan called this trend a “historic scale of professional investor ownership,” which had previously only been seen with the launch of gold ETFs in 2004, considered the most successful ETF products at the time.
However, Hougan stated that despite the influx of institutional funds, retail investment still constitutes the largest portion of spot BTC ETF investments.
As of now, the combined assets under management of these ETFs amount to approximately $50 billion.
