Morgan Stanley now holds 10% stake in Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy

Per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released on Jan. 8, investment bank Morgan Stanley had acquired 792,627 shares in business intelligence firm MicroStrategy. The investment represents a 10.9% stake in a firm that has made massive investments in Bitcoin over the past several months. 

The purchase apparently happened on Dec. 31. MicroStrategy has had a colossal month, seeing its shares move from $289 on Dec. 8 to $545 as of Jan. 8. 

In August, MicroStrategy took bold steps into crypto, making Bitcoin its primary reserve asset. At the time, CEO Michael Saylor said of the firm’s choice:

“This is not a speculation, nor a hedge. It is a deliberate corporate strategy to adopt the Bitcoin Standard.”

Just weeks ago, MicroStrategy announced a $400 million securities offering with the stated purpose of raising funds to buy more Bitcoin. As of Dec. 21, the firm had stockpiled 70,470 Bitcoin. 

At prices as of publication time, MicroStrategy’s BTC stockpile was worth over $2.8 billion. 

Institutional investors like Morgan Stanley have warmed up to crypto assets considerably over the past year. Many have attributed Bitcoin’s recent bull market to this institutional uptick, as compared to the retail FOMO that was so critical to BTC’s 2017 highs, which subsequently fell apart.