Bitcoin Goes Mainstream: Morgan Stanley Tells Advisors to Buy In

Morgan Stanley has made a landmark move in the crypto space that could significantly reshape mainstream investment strategies.

In its latest guidance, the firm’s Global Investment Committee (GIC) recommended that financial advisors and clients maintain a 2%–4% Bitcoin allocation. According to the analysts, BTC is like digital gold, calling it “scarce.”

Here's the essence of their "huge" Bitcoin call:

Allocation Guidance

• Global Investment Committee (GIC) recommends a 2%–4% allocation to Bitcoin across client portfolios:
  • 2% for balanced growth
  • 3–4% for opportunistic or market-driven returns
• This guidance reaches 16,000 financial advisors managing $2 trillion in client assets.

Why It Matters

• Morgan Stanley views Bitcoin as “digital gold”—a scarce, long-term asset with diversification benefits.
• Institutional ownership of Bitcoin ETFs has climbed to 25% in H2 2025, up from 21.9% in Q1.
• Morgan Stanley holds $187 million in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), ranking among the top five holders.

Potential Impact

• Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley called the update “huge,” noting it could open the floodgates to $2 trillion in potential crypto exposure.
• Partnership with ZeroHash aims to bring crypto access to retail clients via E-Trade by 2026.
• ETF inflows have helped push Bitcoin to a new ATH of $125K, with further advisor-driven demand expected to amplify the rally.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley called it “huge” and posted on X, saying - “GIC guides 16,000 advisors managing $2 trillion in savings and wealth for clients. We’re entering the mainstream era.”

Mr. Raj Karkara, COO, ZebPay, said “Bitcoin’s record-breaking surge past $125,000 marks a defining moment for the digital asset ecosystem, driven by sustained institutional inflows into spot ETFs, declining exchange reserves, and a pronounced macro shift toward the ‘debasement hedge’ narrative. This rally isn’t fueled by short-term momentum alone; it reflects a structural tightening of supply amid robust on-chain activity and renewed investor conviction. As liquidity migrates towards regulated venues and Bitcoin cements its place among the world’s most valuable assets, we’re witnessing a pivotal evolution in market maturity and capital efficiency within the crypto economy. These developments highlight not only Bitcoin’s resilience as a store of value but also the growing sophistication of participants navigating this dynamic landscape.”

Morgan Stanley PE Acquires Gurugram based Clearmedi Healthcare, A Cancer Care Hospitals Chain for $35 Mn

Morgan Stanley’s private equity arm has acquired a majority stake in Gurugram-based oncology/cancer care hospital chain, for reportedly $35 Million.

ClearMedi Healthcare is a joint venture between Medipass (La Repubblica group) S.r.l. Italy, KOS S.p.A. Italy and Clearview Healthcare India.

Morgan Stanley PE, along with the promoters of the healthcare chain, bought out 100% stake in the healthcare chain from Italy's KOS Group.

The acquisition deal includes both stake purchase and infusion of fresh equity into the company, said a report by Economic Times. However, specific details like proportion of stakes picked from the KOS Group and how much came into the company as fresh equity remain undisclosed at present.

Founded in 2010, by Shashi Kant Baliyan, ClearMedi is in business of managing complex clinical services running and operating full clinical setups/ Hospitals. From unit operations of Oncology, Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, we are now Operating and Managing stand-alone Super Specialty Hospitals.

The hospital chain has over 350+ Hospital beds autonomously managed by it in different self-sufficient Tertiary-care Hospitals fully managed by ClearMedi.

Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure Acquires Stake in iBus Network and Infrastructure

Mumbai, 9th April 2021 - Morgan Stanley and iBus Networks ("iBus") today announced that Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure has made an investment of ₹150 Crores (US$ 21 Million) to acquire a stake in iBus. iBus offers in-building wireless solutions ("IBS"), outdoor small cells and other last-mile connectivity solutions to mobile operators to enable them to serve their customers seamlessly. The company currently deploys its infrastructure across 233 commercial, residential and retail sites across the country with a tenanted area of 276 million sq ft.

Welcoming the investment, Ram Sellaratnam, Sunil Menon and Subash Vasudevan, Co-Founders of iBus, said, "We at iBus welcome Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure as an equity partner for the strength of experience in helping companies build scale. Connectivity is fundamental to large developing digital economies like India and our mission is to build an end-to-end intelligent, scalable and convergent connectivity ecosystem. Distributed Antenna Systems such as In-Building solutions have been fragmented and silo-ed for a long time. With this investment, iBus will build scale and eliminate inefficiencies to fast track the essential digitalization of our economy".

Cipher-Plexus Capital Advisor was the exclusive advisor for the transaction.

The company's business model is intricately linked to India's data consumption and digital infrastructure story. India's per capita data consumption is the highest globally with an average monthly data consumption of 11GB per month compared to only 1 GB per month as recently as March 2017. 80% of data consumption takes place indoors where telecom coverage is least adequate and the growth in mobile data consumption and the transition to 4G / 5G requires densification of indoor telecom networks.

With the Government of India's focus on enhancing digital infrastructure across the country, businesses such as iBus will play a critical role in building such infrastructure and further improving network capacity and coverage. The company also provides other solutions such as O-RAN deployment and data analytics, which will play an increasingly important role as the country moves towards 5G.

"We are excited to partner with a management team that is establishing itself as the in-building solutions partner of choice for telecom operators. Our investment will allow iBus to drive consolidation and scale in a fragmented industry while enhancing the mobile user experience", said Raja Parthasarathy, Managing Director and Co-Head of Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure. Founded in 2013 by three first-generation entrepreneurs, iBus previously raised capital from a number of well-known investors and family offices.

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure is the India infrastructure investing platform of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. Part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners is a leading global infrastructure investment platform with offices in New York, London, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Mumbai.

Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure has also invested in Unison Enviro Private Limited, a city gas distribution company, HealthMap Diagnostics Private Limited, which specializes in diagnostic imaging in Indian healthcare, and LEAP India Private Limited which specializes in providing supply chain solutions such as pooling of pallets.

About iBus Network and Infrastructure Limited ("iBus")

iBus offers IBS and last-mile connectivity solutions and acts as a neutral connectivity infrastructure provider for mobile operators. iBus currently deploys IBS infrastructure across 233 commercial and retail sites in India with a tenanted area of 276MM sq ft. iBus' last-mile connectivity solutions help mobile operators to improve network capacity and coverage. iBus Networks is an unique in-building connectivity solutions company with an emphasis to amplify benefits of convergence of intelligence, connectivity & protocols.

Walmart may 'Dis-Invest' in Flipkart As India's New Complicated FDI Rules Hinders Company's Profitability

Within a year after global retail giant Walmart had bought Flipkart for $17 billion, it is being reported that it could exit Flipkart, as the US retail firm does not see a long-term path to profitability, The Economic Times reported citing a Morgan Stanley report.

In a report dated February 4, Morgaon Stanley said, “an exit is likely, not completely out of the question, with the Indian e-commerce market becoming more complicated”.

Walmart isn't likely to consider divesting its stake in Flipkart, but at the end of the day it may be the right move if there is no longer a clear path toward achieving a profit in India, according to Morgan Stanley.

The Morgan Stanley report came after the new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules for the e-commerce sector came into effect on February 1, post which not just Flipkart but Amazon has too has been impactedand saw a drop of around 25-35% in sales after having to re-arrange their seller entities where they held an equity stake.

Flipkart may need to scrap approximately 25% of its products from its site in light of the new rules. The smartphones and electronics category will feel an immediate impact because of the necessary changes which need to made in supply chains and existing exclusivity deals, said the brokerage report.

“We estimate that Flipkart derives 50% of its revenue from this category, meaning Flipkart could face meaningful disruption and top-line pressure in the near term,” it said.

A Walmart spokesperson told Economic Times, “Despite the recent changes in regulations, we remain optimistic about the e-commerce opportunity in India given the size of the market, the low penetration of ecommerce in the retail channel and the pace at which it is growing. As Walmart scales in India, the company will continue to partner to create sustained economic growth across agriculture, food and retail. Future investments will support national initiatives and will bring sustainable benefits to the country.”

Morgan Stanley to Tie Up with An Indian Startup

American multinational investment bank and financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, has shortlisted 16 startups in India and is planning to tie up with one of them to develop new and innovative solutions to help it navigate the technology road map.

Morgan Stanley will host Asia’s first CTO Innovation Summit in Bengaluru and will also listen to the ideas of 16 startups it has shortlisted and choose one of these startups to tie up with. The names and whereabouts of these 16 startups is not disclosed yet.

Notably, in every summer Morgan Stanley’s technologists hold a meet with cutting-edge firms and industry leaders in Silicon Valley to explore the emerging trends and new products. For India, the investment bank has chosen India's own Silicon Valley - Bengaluru.

Morgan Stanley is looking at startups working in AI, Machine Learning, automation, fintech, data analytics as some of the areas. Since the inception of the summit 17 years ago, Morgan Stanley had an interaction with more than 800 start-ups, many of which have become part of the firm’s tech ecosystem.

Bobby Gilja, CIO of Corporate and Funding Technology, Morgan Stanley, told a business daily, "For us technology should help the firm make money, save money or reduce risk and we look to work with the best talent, whether it’s our teams in Morgan Stanley or with external partners like start-ups."

Last year Morgaon Stanley had launched its Multicultural Innovation Lab, an accelerator program for technology and technology-enabled start-ups in the post‐seed to Series B funding rounds. The lab aims to help propel minority-led tech startups.

The first cohort of the startups Morgaon Stanley's lab had sponsored include five tech firms, spanning industries from commerce to finance. Its 2018 cohort startups include startups innovating in health, beauty and well-being, entertainment and ticket sales, nonprofit leadership, energy, online retail, family savings and software development.

MOrgaon Stanley had tied up with with California-based data aggregation startup Addepar to automate the administrative tasks, which will allow its wealth managers to dedicate more time to clients. This start-up is backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, with assets worth around $560 billion on its platform.

One of the reasons for the investment giant to choose Bengaluru is that many technology captives of multinationals have had their presence in India since early 1980s. Less than a kilometre from where Morgan Stanley's office, its competitors like JP Morgan, Wells Fargo have their India technology centres.

Morgan Stanley had entered India 15 years ago and after setting up its first centre in Mumbai, it had set up a centre in Bengaluru in 2014. Both the centres have around 3,000 employees and have increased their headcount in the range of 15-20 per cent on a yearly basis.

To recall, an another American entity and global banking and financial services provider, J.P. Morgan had recently collaborated with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) affiliated CIIE to set up a Financial Inclusion Lab (FIL) that will focus on early-stage fintech startups with innovations that address the unique needs of the lower and middle income (LMI) segment.

The Lab will also host a series of accelerator programs to identify solutions for specific financial challenges, and leading ideas

Source - Business Line

Zomato Now Valued At $2.5 Billion; Thrice of Its Last Valuation

Gurgaon-based restaurant discovery and food delivery platform Zomato has shot up its valuation to US $2.5 billion, according to a report by wall street giant Morgan Stanley's research arm. The coverage on Zomato by Morgan Stanley was done while taking stock of the startup's publicly traded shareholder Info Edge, which runs portals like Naukri.com and 99acres.com.

The valuation report comes at time when Zomato is in advanced talks to raise up to $200 million from Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial, also known as Alipay.

According to the report in Economic Times, this estimate is three times more than Zomato’s valuation in its last funding round. Moreover, the fresh valuation has made Zomato to outrun other billion-dollar startups in India like Snapdeal, Quikr and Shopclues.

At the consolidated level, Zomato will clock $1.3 billion in revenue, including the delivery fee, and register 27% ebitda margins, the Morgan Stanley report said.

The report also comes at time when the food delivery segment in India is heating up with new players like UberEats, Ola's acquisition, for which Ola has committed to invest additional $200 million, to get the slice of food delivery business in India. And now, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market as well.

There were also reports in November last year of a merger between Zomato and Swiggy. Although, now Swiggy is expected to raise about $100 million from South Africa's Naspers.

In September 2017, Zomato had acquired Runnr, an on-demand logistics and food delivery startup, and in the same month also invested in home-cooked meal delivery startup TinMen. All this to get hold of food delivery market of India, inorganic way.

Zomato Now Valued At $2.5 Billion; Thrice of Its Last Valuation

Gurgaon-based restaurant discovery and food delivery platform Zomato has shot up its valuation to US $2.5 billion, according to a report by wall street giant Morgan Stanley's research arm. The coverage on Zomato by Morgan Stanley was done while taking stock of the startup's publicly traded shareholder Info Edge, which runs portals like Naukri.com and 99acres.com.

The valuation report comes at time when Zomato is in advanced talks to raise up to $200 million from Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial, also known as Alipay.

According to the report in Economic Times, this estimate is three times more than Zomato’s valuation in its last funding round. Moreover, the fresh valuation has made Zomato to outrun other billion-dollar startups in India like Snapdeal, Quikr and Shopclues.

At the consolidated level, Zomato will clock $1.3 billion in revenue, including the delivery fee, and register 27% ebitda margins, the Morgan Stanley report said.

The report also comes at time when the food delivery segment in India is heating up with new players like UberEats, Ola's acquisition, for which Ola has committed to invest additional $200 million, to get the slice of food delivery business in India. And now, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market as well.

There were also reports in November last year of a merger between Zomato and Swiggy. Although, now Swiggy is expected to raise about $100 million from South Africa's Naspers.

In September 2017, Zomato had acquired Runnr, an on-demand logistics and food delivery startup, and in the same month also invested in home-cooked meal delivery startup TinMen. All this to get hold of food delivery market of India, inorganic way.

India’s E-commerce Market To Grow 30% To $200 Billion By 2026: Report

It’s no longer a surprise that ecommerce has become an indispensable part of the lives of majority of Indians. With traffic issues plaguing the cities and time becoming a more precious commodity than ever, ecommerce shopping is allowing people to shop from the comfort of their homes, offices without breaking a sweat in the real world. The jaw-dropping discounts, offers makes it an ever more attractive choice.

Currently pegged at $30 billion, the Indian ecommerce market is expected to be worth $200 billion by calendar year 2026, according to a report by investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Titled India’s Digital Leap – The Multi Trillion Dollar Opportunity, the report mentions that India’s e-commerce market will grow 30% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) for gross merchandise value to be worth $200 billion by the year 2026. The report further highlights that this growth in ecommerce will help in growing market penetration to 12 per cent in the next nine years, versus the 2 per cent figure that we have today.

Throwing light on what will cause this spike in growth numbers for the Indian ecommerce sector, the report said that increasing number of internet users, all of which will be new to e-commerce, will help lead this growth.

In 2016, India had a total of 60 million online shoppers, which is 14 per cent of the internet user base of the country. According to Morgan Stanley, this figure will rise to to over 50% in another nine years i.e. by 2026.

“Our analysis of some global eCommerce companies highlights that two-thirds of the growth in their eCommerce sales happened due to new users coming online and shopping, while the balance was driven by existing online shoppers buying more frequently and/or driving up order values,” the report said.

Generally, when starting something new, people take time acquainting themselves to the concept and adjusting to it. Same goes for Internet shopping. It has been observed, once a consumer has been online for more than five years, they are more likely to do at least some of their shopping online. Currently, this is only 30 per cent of India’s 432 million internet users.

While on the face of it, the 30 per cent figure might seem very discouraging but it is not. Considering the country’s population and the fact that bulk of the addition in the internet base of the country has happened in the last 3 years, courtesy smartphones boon, the 30 per cent performance isn’t that bad and is only slated to increase in the coming years.

According to industry experts, year 2019 is going to be a very crucial one for the Indian ecommerce industry as that is the year we can expect India’s internet usage to reach maturity. Some believe that 2019 can be an inflection point for India’s ecommerce market.

Morgan Stanley believes that the growth in the sector will still be led by the so-called “horizontal” e-commerce players, including Amazon India and Flipkart.

“If I look at the way e-commerce has evolved globally, it is generally the horizontal e-commerce players who have dominated,” Parag Gupta, executive director, Morgan Stanley, said in an interview to a news publication.

He further added, “We have seen this in the US and China. So I believe the situation should not be very different in India, because the categories that become large in e-commerce generally happen to be those that can be dominated by horizontals—which is electronics and fashion.”

This is precisely why horizontals e-commerce players are attracting the highest funding rounds even after the sector went through a relatively less active 2016 and a flurry of potential consolidation in the market.

“Generally, the funds are now going to segment leaders, and this is across segments,” Gupta said. “The investors who are investing in the Indian internet space are coming with learnings from other markets such as in China and the US. They have all learned from the opportunities and more importantly from their mistakes which they are unlikely to repeat in India. One such mistake is trying to compete against each other, burn a lot of money for a few years, and then eventually consolidate. If the same is to happen in India and there is some commonality in the investor base, then consolidation could be a logical outcome and could happen much faster.”

Flipkart, which is considered as the most successful Indian startup till date, has acquired a unique status in the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market. The company, which is currently in its tenth year of operation and enjoys a customer base of 100 million users has built the reputation of being an Indian e-commerce major by being customer centric and providing them with stupendous discounts and offers year after year.

SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart is the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent. In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

Not only have Indians adopted ecommerce shopping with open arms, they’re also warming up to the concept of digital payments on these platforms. Till a couple of years ago, cash on delivery (COD) made up for over 60 per cent of ecommerce sales, which has now come down to maybe 55-60%. Further, the share of UPI and digital wallets has also increased to 4-7 per cent. Till a couple of years back, that figure used to be just about a percent or two. Hence, one can say this for sure, that once the preferred mode of payment, COD has now given way to other forms of digital payments on ecommerce platforms.

This development was first reported in Live Mint.

[Image: Marketing Land]

India’s E-commerce Market To Grow 30% To $200 Billion By 2026: Report

It’s no longer a surprise that ecommerce has become an indispensable part of the lives of majority of Indians. With traffic issues plaguing the cities and time becoming a more precious commodity than ever, ecommerce shopping is allowing people to shop from the comfort of their homes, offices without breaking a sweat in the real world. The jaw-dropping discounts, offers makes it an ever more attractive choice.

Currently pegged at $30 billion, the Indian ecommerce market is expected to be worth $200 billion by calendar year 2026, according to a report by investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Titled India’s Digital Leap – The Multi Trillion Dollar Opportunity, the report mentions that India’s e-commerce market will grow 30% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) for gross merchandise value to be worth $200 billion by the year 2026. The report further highlights that this growth in ecommerce will help in growing market penetration to 12 per cent in the next nine years, versus the 2 per cent figure that we have today.

Throwing light on what will cause this spike in growth numbers for the Indian ecommerce sector, the report said that increasing number of internet users, all of which will be new to e-commerce, will help lead this growth.

In 2016, India had a total of 60 million online shoppers, which is 14 per cent of the internet user base of the country. According to Morgan Stanley, this figure will rise to to over 50% in another nine years i.e. by 2026.

“Our analysis of some global eCommerce companies highlights that two-thirds of the growth in their eCommerce sales happened due to new users coming online and shopping, while the balance was driven by existing online shoppers buying more frequently and/or driving up order values,” the report said.

Generally, when starting something new, people take time acquainting themselves to the concept and adjusting to it. Same goes for Internet shopping. It has been observed, once a consumer has been online for more than five years, they are more likely to do at least some of their shopping online. Currently, this is only 30 per cent of India’s 432 million internet users.

While on the face of it, the 30 per cent figure might seem very discouraging but it is not. Considering the country’s population and the fact that bulk of the addition in the internet base of the country has happened in the last 3 years, courtesy smartphones boon, the 30 per cent performance isn’t that bad and is only slated to increase in the coming years.

According to industry experts, year 2019 is going to be a very crucial one for the Indian ecommerce industry as that is the year we can expect India’s internet usage to reach maturity. Some believe that 2019 can be an inflection point for India’s ecommerce market.

Morgan Stanley believes that the growth in the sector will still be led by the so-called “horizontal” e-commerce players, including Amazon India and Flipkart.

“If I look at the way e-commerce has evolved globally, it is generally the horizontal e-commerce players who have dominated,” Parag Gupta, executive director, Morgan Stanley, said in an interview to a news publication.

He further added, “We have seen this in the US and China. So I believe the situation should not be very different in India, because the categories that become large in e-commerce generally happen to be those that can be dominated by horizontals—which is electronics and fashion.”

This is precisely why horizontals e-commerce players are attracting the highest funding rounds even after the sector went through a relatively less active 2016 and a flurry of potential consolidation in the market.

“Generally, the funds are now going to segment leaders, and this is across segments,” Gupta said. “The investors who are investing in the Indian internet space are coming with learnings from other markets such as in China and the US. They have all learned from the opportunities and more importantly from their mistakes which they are unlikely to repeat in India. One such mistake is trying to compete against each other, burn a lot of money for a few years, and then eventually consolidate. If the same is to happen in India and there is some commonality in the investor base, then consolidation could be a logical outcome and could happen much faster.”

Flipkart, which is considered as the most successful Indian startup till date, has acquired a unique status in the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market. The company, which is currently in its tenth year of operation and enjoys a customer base of 100 million users has built the reputation of being an Indian e-commerce major by being customer centric and providing them with stupendous discounts and offers year after year.

SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart is the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent. In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

Not only have Indians adopted ecommerce shopping with open arms, they’re also warming up to the concept of digital payments on these platforms. Till a couple of years ago, cash on delivery (COD) made up for over 60 per cent of ecommerce sales, which has now come down to maybe 55-60%. Further, the share of UPI and digital wallets has also increased to 4-7 per cent. Till a couple of years back, that figure used to be just about a percent or two. Hence, one can say this for sure, that once the preferred mode of payment, COD has now given way to other forms of digital payments on ecommerce platforms.

This development was first reported in Live Mint.

[Image: Marketing Land]