Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF), launched at the beginning of April, showed a remarkable performance in its first month on the market. The fund, which was opened for trading on April 8, did not experience a net outflow on any day for a month and saw a total inflow of 193 million dollars. Thus, the total amount of assets under management of Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) exceeded $240 million.
Investor interest and first month highlights
MSBT had a strong opening with $30.6 million in deposits and $34 million in transaction volume on its first day of trading. Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy, Amy Oldenburg, described this chart as the best breakout the institution has seen in ETF history. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas stated that the fund’s opening performance can be considered among the most successful debuts ever in the ETF market.
While the spot Bitcoin ETFs of major competitors such as BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and ARK Invest operating in the market during the same period faced net outflows on the days when the Bitcoin price fluctuated between 70 thousand and 80 thousand dollars, MSBT experienced fund inflows for a month in a row.
According to SoSoValue data in MSBT’s first month, while the fund recorded inflows for 17 days, it remained in balance for just five business days; There were no days when investors were seen withdrawing their funds. It surpassed the total inflows its rival BTCW had seen to date, collecting over $103 million in investor money in its first six trading days.
Low-cost wage policy came to the fore
According to experts, Morgan Stanley’s low fund management fee differentiated MSBT from its competitors. At 0.14 percent, the fund’s sponsor fee was among the lowest rates in the market for spot Bitcoin ETFs. This rate surpassed its competitors such as Bitwise, ARKB and major players such as IBIT and FBTC, which operate with a 0.25 percent fee.
According to analysis, this cost advantage is more important, especially for large institutional investors. Small differences mean significant savings on an annual basis in high-volume portfolios. Almost all of the investments directed towards MSBT in the first weeks came from individual investors; the fund had not yet been incorporated into the Morgan Stanley advisory network.
Oldenburg explained the fund’s initial investor profile by saying, “In the first week and the following few days, almost all of the transaction activity in our fund consisted of individual clients investing on their own.”
What position has MSBT achieved in the market?
The fund managed to attract another $13 million from fresh investors in two trading days; Meanwhile, there was a total outflow of 422 million dollars in rival funds. Even on May 7, when the industry was tough, MSBT saw an inflow of $5.7 million. On the same day, Fidelity lost nearly $100 million and BlackRock lost investors more than $27 million.
MSBT’s 0.24 percent premium to net asset value indicated that demand exceeded supply; The price of the fund was under more buyer pressure than its competitors in the market such as IBIT and FBTC. According to the data, MSBT currently holds approximately 2,620 Bitcoins and ranked 32nd among global ETFs with this figure.
The interest of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency field continues. There has been a total of $3 billion inflows into the leading US Bitcoin ETFs in just six weeks. While the total money transferred to Spot Bitcoin ETFs since January increased to 59.3 billion dollars, the asset volume under the management of these funds reached 106.6 billion dollars.
