Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF Sees $371 Million in Contributions Amid $66.8 Million Loss

Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) has reported a significant influx of $371.1 million in gross share contributions during its initial 85 days of operation. However, this positive inflow was overshadowed by a $66.8 million decrease in net assets, primarily attributed to unrealized losses in Bitcoin.

According to the trust's first quarterly filing, the contributions outweighed the redemption distributions, which totaled only $5.26 million. The report indicated that redemption distributions represented 1.42% of gross contributions from April 7 through June 30, 2026. The majority of the net asset decline, amounting to $66.17 million, stemmed from unrealized Bitcoin depreciation, accounting for nearly 99% of the total loss. Additionally, the trust recorded $618,611 in realized Bitcoin losses and $72,288 in sponsor fees.

During this period, the net asset value per share of MSBT dropped by 14.01%, from $19.70 to $16.94, mirroring a decline in the CoinDesk Bitcoin benchmark, which fell by 13.98%. At the end of June, the trust held 5,059.3077 BTC, with a cost basis of $365.18 million and a fair value of $299 million, based on a Bitcoin price of $59,101.49.

Despite the losses, the trust experienced a net increase of $365.84 million through capital transactions, with 17.9 million shares issued and only 250,000 shares redeemed during the reporting period. Notably, MSBT had a month without any daily redemptions, although this streak ended with a small number of redemptions later on.

As of July 31, the trust had 21.74 million shares outstanding, reflecting a 23.17% increase from the previous month, indicating continued net creation activity.