Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is set to debut on the NYSE Arca on Wednesday, marking the first time a major commercial bank has launched a Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
The listing of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), scheduled for April 8, was confirmed in a notice issued Tuesday by the New York Stock Exchange.
MSBT would become the first spot Bitcoin ETF to enter the market in nearly two years, following crypto asset manager Grayscale’s launch of its Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF in July 2024.
The fund is entering a highly competitive space dominated by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which have attracted a combined $74.3 billion in net inflows since their debut in January 2024, according to Farside Investors.
Although Morgan Stanley is arriving later to the market, it has set MSBT’s fee at a low 0.14%, a move that could put pressure on competitors to reduce their own fees.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted the bank’s potential influence, pointing out that it has around 16,000 advisors overseeing $6 trillion in assets, making them key gatekeepers of wealthy investor capital.
Morgan Stanley had previously named Coinbase and Bank of New York Mellon as the proposed custodians for its Bitcoin ETF.
More crypto offerings in the pipeline
The launch of MSBT is part of Morgan Stanley’s broader push into the crypto market this year. In February, the bank applied for a national trust banking charter that would allow it to custody digital assets, execute client trades and swaps, and offer staking services.
The Wall Street firm also filed in early January to list a staked Ether ETF and a Solana ETF. Later that month, it appointed longtime executive Amy Oldenburg to head its digital assets division.
