Morgan Stanley crypto push

Morgan Stanley is moving deeper into crypto, with reports that E*Trade will add direct trading in bitcoin, ether and solana in early 2026. (coindesk.com) CoinDesk, citing Bloomberg, reported on Sept. 23, 2025 that Morgan Stanley planned to use Zerohash to let E*Trade customers trade BTC, ETH and SOL, with the rollout targeted for early 2026. The Block reported in January 2026 that the same trading launch was expected in the first half of 2026. (coindesk.com) (theblock.co) At the same time, Morgan Stanley launched its own spot bitcoin product on April 8, 2026 under the ticker MSBT. The firm said the exchange-traded product would hold bitcoin directly and trade on NYSE Arca. (morganstanley.com) (sec.gov) MSBT entered the market with a 0.14% annual sponsor fee, which Morgan Stanley disclosed in an amended Securities and Exchange Commission filing and outside analysts described as the lowest fee among U.S. spot bitcoin funds at launch. (sec.gov) (theblock.co) By April 16, 2026, CoinDesk reported that MSBT had attracted more than $100 million in its first week. Morgan Stanley’s product page published days earlier listed the fund as live and carrying the MSBT ticker. (coindesk.com) (morganstanley.com) A spot crypto trade is the simplest version of the business: a customer buys the asset itself at the market price instead of buying a fund or a futures contract. A spot bitcoin exchange-traded product does something similar inside a stock wrapper, with the issuer holding bitcoin and investors buying shares on an exchange. (sec.gov) (morganstanley.com) Morgan Stanley’s filings show the plumbing behind that wrapper. The trust’s registration documents describe Coinbase as custodian and prime broker for the bitcoin, while BNY Mellon serves as administrator, transfer agent and cash custodian. (coindesk.com) (sec.gov) Morgan Stanley has framed the push as part of a broader buildout rather than a one-off fund launch. In its April 8 announcement, the firm said MSBT reflected a “firmwide focus” on digital-asset products, and its institutional marketing says investors can get crypto exposure through “familiar market infrastructure” without handling wallets directly. (morganstanley.com 1) (morganstanley.com 2) The on-chain tracking claims circulating in social posts are harder to verify independently from primary public filings. Morgan Stanley’s launch materials and Securities and Exchange Commission documents confirm the fund, the fee and the custody setup, but they do not themselves document Arkham wallet labels or real-time wallet balances. (morganstanley.com) (sec.gov) If Morgan Stanley completes the E*Trade rollout on the timetable reported in 2025 and 2026, the bank will be offering both direct crypto trading and a bank-branded bitcoin fund within weeks of each other. That would put retail brokerage access, exchange-traded exposure and institutional custody under one Wall Street name. (coindesk.com) (theblock.co)