Global investment bank Morgan Stanley has given Bitcoin bulls something to cheers about. The institution has stated that it classes Bitcoin as an institutional investment class. (And the day after Bitcoin’s birthday… how thoughtful)

What this means is that it recognizes Bitcoin as a type of asset similar to shares, property, bonds, cash, or commodities. It also means good news for those hoping for a Bitcoin ETF.

Research Concludes Bitcoin an Asset

The bank’s research division reviewed the last six months of Bitcoin usage.

What the researchers discovered was that permanent ledger technologies, hacks, hard forks, Bitcoin competitors, and market volatility have led to a conclusion that the most sensible way to classify BTC is as an institutional investment class.

Bitcoin Asset Class

The researchers concluded that Bitcoin is not just a digital payment system or financial network, but an asset class in its own right.

According to Coindesk:

“Perhaps most notably, the report emphasized its ‘rapidly morphing thesis,’ which began by defining bitcoin as ‘digital cash’ and noting that investors had full confidence in it, to a solution for issues in the financial system, to a new payment system to ultimately a new institutional investment class.”

The report detailed further:

“Various issues and discoveries around the bitcoin ecosystem have caused the thesis to evolve, including the permanent ledger recording all transactions, a number of hacks, hard forks, new technologies which are cheaper than bitcoin, market volatility and other concerns.”

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Evolution

Bitcoin has evolved. At present, $7.11 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) is being stored by hedge funds or capital firms. This is somewhat hypocritical as the original whitepaper of Bitcoin looked to avoid involvement with financial institutions. But adoption by major financial institutions is increasing, and it only serves to support the coin as a legitimate asset.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is up 0.94% today and selling for $6388, according to coinmarketcap.com.