Bitcoins
A slew of Bitcoin ETFs have hit the market since the products were first approved in the U.S. in 2024, but so far one sector has remained on the sidelines—major U.S. banks. That changed Wednesday with the launch of MSBT, a Bitcoin ETF offered by Morgan Stanley.
The spot ETF, which features an industry low with a sponsor fee of 0.14%, saw over $25 million in trading volume in its first half day of trading. In an X post, Bloomberg senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas put MSBT’s debut in the top 1% of all ETF launches.
The bank’s crypto plans don’t end with Bitcoin, either. Morgan Stanley also filed for Ethereum and Solana trusts in January.
Bitcoin ETFs currently hold over $100 billion in cumulative assets under management as of Tuesday, according to data from CoinShares. The largest Bitcoin ETF belongs to BlackRock, which has over $53 billion in net assets in its IBIT fund.
Bitcoin’s newest ETF arrives at a time when investor interest in crypto, and risky assets in general, is relatively muted. Demand for Bitcoin ETFs recovered slightly after posting a sluggish start to 2026, and the funds have cumulatively seen over $1 billion in net inflows on the year, according to data from CoinShares.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth management arm, which has about 16,000 advisors, has recommended clients allocate 2% to 4% of their portfolios to crypto. The bank’s clients were previously able to access third-party Bitcoin ETFs. Now, Morgan Stanley will be able to direct clients to its own product.
For crypto boosters, MSBT’s launch was yet more confirmation of crypto’s relevance to the financial sector.
“Institutional priorities have matured; MSBT is the clear response to this second wave of digital asset adoption,” Coinbase Institutional co-CEO Brett Tejpaul told Fortune. Coinbase and BNY Mellon were both selected as custodians for the ETF.
But it’s yet unclear if Morgan Stanley breaking the ice on bank-led crypto ETFs will open a floodgate of new crypto funds. Despite the fact that the “risk of being first is gone,” CoinShares senior research associate Luke Nolan said in a text, “banks with strong anti-crypto reputations are unlikely to follow quickly … I [don’t] think Goldman [will] join the ETF game, for example. They seem to be going more for the tokenization side of things (although this could prove incorrect).”
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Jack Kubinec Read More