Strategy CEO Phong Le believes that if Morgan Stanley allocated just 2% of its portfolio to Bitcoin, it could generate up to $160 billion in new capital for the market. He made this assessment after Morgan Stanley updated its S-1 filing with a second amendment for its Bitcoin spot ETF.
According to Phong Le's Chia on X, Morgan Stanley's asset management division is overseeing approximately $8 trillion in assets and is allocating Bitcoin within the 0-4% range. If we take an Medium of 2%, the amount of Capital that could flow into BTC would be equivalent to $160 billion, which is about three times the size of IBIT at the time he made his assessment.
From a legal standpoint, documents filed with the SEC show that Morgan Stanley's proposed product is called Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, intended to trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol MSBT. The filings also confirm that Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. is the authorized fund manager, while the custodian and operating partners include BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody.
This move shows Morgan Stanley is taking another step in the race for Bitcoin spot ETFs among major US financial institutions. Unchained suggests that if approved, Morgan Stanley could become the first major US bank to back a Bitcoin spot ETF product, further solidifying the trend of traditional financial institutions expanding their presence in the digital asset market.
