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Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform has launched spot cryptocurrency trading, allowing eligible clients to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash.
Clients can view their crypto holdings alongside stocks and other traditional investments on the E*TRADE platform, while transfer functionality for moving digital assets on and off the platform is expected later this year.
The self-directed channel served 8.6 million households and held about $1.56 trillion in client assets as of March 31, according to Morgan Stanley’s latest financial supplement.
According to Thursday’s announcement, trades carry a 50-basis-point fee, while custody and transaction services are handled through separate Zero Hash accounts that are not covered by FDIC or SIPC protections. Morgan Stanley said it expects to transition the digital asset services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, its national trust bank currently in organization.
Morgan Stanley also introduced several non-crypto updates across the customer platform, including fractional share trading, a revamped retirement planning tool and new features for its Power E*TRADE Pro desktop platform.
The rollout follows a pilot launched in May, when the company began testing the service with a limited group of users before expanding access to eligible E*TRADE clients.
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Morgan Stanley broadens crypto strategy
Beyond retail spot trading, Morgan Stanley has expanded its digital asset business into stablecoin reserve services and crypto exchange-traded funds this year.
In April, the Wall Street giant launched a stablecoin reserve offering that allows issuers to hold the assets backing their tokens in one of the firm’s money market funds while earning interest.
The same month, the company launched its spot Bitcoin ETF with a 0.14% management fee, making it the lowest-cost Bitcoin ETF on the US market at the time. The fund debuted on NYSE Arca as the first spot Bitcoin ETF launched by a major US commercial bank.
During its first six trading days, the ETF attracted more than $100 million in net inflows, surpassing the cumulative inflows of WisdomTree’s spot Bitcoin ETF, which launched in January 2024. At the time of writing, the fund has attracted about $385 million in cumulative net inflows, according to SoSoValue data.
In June, Morgan Stanley amended its proposed spot Ether and Solana ETF filings to set management fees at 0.14% after first applying to list the funds in January.
Top 10 Bitcoin ETFs. Source: SoSoValue
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