🎢 Did Morgan Stanley Crash Bitcoin? 🕵️‍♂️ ETF Shenanigans Exposed!

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It appears the chaps at Morgan Stanley, never ones to shirk from a bit of financial jiggery-pokery, have stirred the pot once again. Their filing for a Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded fund (ETF), paired with MSCI’s decision to keep digital asset companies in its index, has sent analysts into a frenzy of speculation. The Bull Theory lot, bless their souls, have suggested this could be the makings of a grand-scale market manipulation scheme-the kind of thing one might expect from a Bond villain, not a Wall Street firm.

Bitcoin Market Manipulation? 

In a post on X-formerly known as Twitter, though I’m not sure why anyone bothered changing the name-the Bull Theory analysts pointed out the curious timeline of Bitcoin’s October crash and its January recovery. According to their theory, the whole affair looks suspiciously like a carefully orchestrated dance, complete with tumbling prices and abrupt recoveries. The first domino fell on October 10, when MSCI-once cozy with Morgan Stanley-proposed booting Digital Asset Treasury Companies (DATCOs) from its global indexes.

This move, which would have affected firms like Strategy and Metaplanet (both of whom are sitting on a tidy pile of Bitcoin), sent shockwaves through the market. MSCI’s indexes, after all, guide trillions of dollars in passive investments. If these companies were removed, institutional investors like pension funds and ETFs would have to divest, leading to a liquidity crunch and a dramatic drop in Bitcoin’s price.

And drop it did. By nearly $18,000, wiping out over $900 billion from the total crypto market cap. Ouch.

Morgan Stanley And The MSCI Shift

The uncertainty dragged on with a consultation period that lasted until December 31. These three months were akin to watching Jeeves prepare a particularly complicated cocktail-tense, drawn-out, and with no guarantee of a happy ending. Investors froze, passive funds faced potential forced selling, and Bitcoin’s price dropped 31% while altcoins fared even worse. It was, in short, a disaster.

But then, as if by magic (or perhaps insider knowledge), Bitcoin staged an unexpected comeback on January 1, 2026. Prices surged 8% in just five days, leaving analysts scratching their heads and wondering if someone had tipped off the big players. The next twist came on January 5 and 6, when Morgan Stanley unveiled plans for spot Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and Solana ETFs, followed by MSCI’s decision not to proceed with the previously proposed exclusion of crypto-heavy companies from its indexes.

A Calculated Move?

The Bull Theory analysts, ever the detectives, have pieced together a narrative: MSCI pressured the market by threatening index removals in October, suppressing prices and creating uncertainty. Once institutions had bought in at lower prices, Morgan Stanley introduced its ETF, and MSCI removed the threat of exclusion. If true, this would suggest a coordinated effort to manipulate the market-a notion that raises more eyebrows than an Aunt Agatha glare.

As the market transitions back towards liquidity, the same entities that potentially orchestrated the downturn may now be poised to profit from the rebound. Classic Wall Street, really.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $91,550, having retraced 2% from the $95,000 2-month high reached at the beginning of the week. One wonders what Jeeves would make of it all. Probably something along the lines of, “It is a perplexing muddle, sir, but hardly unexpected.”

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2026-01-08 08:15