Morgan Stanley funds have picked up over 1 million shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as institutional adoption of crypto mounts

• Morgan Stanley funds have picked up a hefty chunk of shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as big, according to SEC filings.
• The shares were purchased back in June, when bitcoin was around $30,000 and GBTC shares were close to $30.
• GBTC is a private bitcoin tracker fund that has attracted attention from high-profile investors like Cathie Wood.

Morgan Stanley funds have picked up a hefty chunk of shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as big banks look for ways to expose clients to crypto, according to SEC filings published on Wednesday.

According to the filings, the Morgan Stanley Insight Fund, an equity growth fund that manages $8 billion in assets, picked up over 900,000 shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust worth $27.6 million. The bank's Discovery Portfolio bought around 600,000 shares, while its VIF Growth Portfolio holds 130,000.

The bank's shares were purchased back in June, when bitcoin was flirting with $30,000 and GBTC shares were closer to $30 each. In May, bitcoin and the crypto market broadly kicked off a brutal decline, with the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency nearly halved from its peak of $64,000 in April.

GBTC is a private bitcoin tracker fund that has attracted attention from high-profile investors like Cathie Wood.

The Morgan Stanley holdings were first noticed by a Twitter user before being picked up by crypto-focused publication DC Forecasts.

The disclosures come just days after reports emerged that Citibank was preparing to trade bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as big banks look for avenues to get in on crypto without bearing too much risk.

Insider reported in July that JPMorgan was beginning to execute client-requested trades for select crypto funds - including GBTC and three other Grayscale funds. The bank's move appears to make JPMorgan the first big bank to open up crypto trades to retail clients.

Along similar lines, in May, Goldman Sachs began offering clients access to a bitcoin via a derivative called non-deliverable forwards.