Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Pulls In $371M Despite $66.8M Paper Loss
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF pulled in far more money than it lost on paper during its first three months on the market, according to a new regulatory filing that offers the clearest look yet at how the fund is actually trading. The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, known as MSBT, reported $371.1 million in gross share contributions over its first 85 days, even as the fund posted a $66.8 million decrease in net assets from operations. The gap between those two numbers tells a story that’s easy to misread if you only glance at the headline loss.
Key takeaways
- MSBT collected $371.1 million in gross share contributions during its first 85 days of trading, combining $200.3 million in cash and $170.8 million in Bitcoin.
- The fund’s $66.8 million operating-period decrease in net assets was almost entirely driven by unrealized Bitcoin depreciation, not investor withdrawals.
- Redemption distributions equaled just 1.42% of gross contributions between April 7 and June 30.
- Shares outstanding jumped 23.17% from June 30 to July 31, reaching 21.74 million shares.
- The filing cannot identify whether retail investors were behind the small redemption baskets that appeared later in the reporting period.
Strong Initial Inflows Into Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust
Money flowed into the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF at a pace that dwarfed what came out. Over its first 85 days, MSBT issued 17.9 million shares while redeeming just 250,000 — a ratio that put creation activity firmly in control of the fund’s early trajectory.
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