The demand for Bitcoin ($BTC) has skyrocketed among Wall Street giants this bull season. The majority of institutional investors watched the 2017 BTC rally from the sidelines calling it a bubble waiting to burst. However, when that didn’t happen and BTC more than tripled its ATH in 2021 even former critics of the top cryptocurrency are rushing to gain more exposure this bull season.
Morgan Stanley, one of the banking giants on Wall Street and a former Bitcoin critic has added nearly 30,000 additional shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ($GBTC). The news was revealed via the company’s latest SEC filing that shows Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund had 58,116 GBTC shares valued at around $2.018 million as of July 31. An early filing from April revealed that the company held nearly 28,298 shares worth $1.03 million, bringing their recent purchase to 30K $GBTC. Morgan Stabley has increased its Bitcoin exposure by over 105% in 5 months’ time.
The additional purchase of $GBTC made Morgan Stanley the second-largest stakeholder of $GBTC shares after Cathie Wood led Ark Invest. Dennis Lynch, chief of Morgan Stanley’s asset management company recently compared Bitcoin to Kenny from the Southpark referring to the mainstream media’s biased and proclaiming it to be dead with every minor dip. He explained,
“I like to compare bitcoin to Kenny from South Park; he dies every episode and reappears,” Lynch explained. “And so… you see in the press, in the media, that bitcoin is dead, that it’s passed its prime, and it just keeps on going,”
Bitcoin Price Reclaims $42K
Bitcoin adoption and exposure in the financial world continue to rise irrespective of the market price. El Salvador adopted BTC at a time when it was down nearly 50% from its top and many other institutional giants did the same. BTC’s price is currently trading at $42,398 rising from a daily low of $40,837 and currently eyeing the $43.5000 mark. The top cryptocurrency is still consolidating under $45K and market pundits expect the consolidation phase to break with the start of the new month as September has historically proven to be bearish.
