described the pricing as a "big move" and said the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust is "likely to launch in early April." Fellow Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas
called the approach "smart." Balchunas said none of Morgan Stanley's approximately 16,000 financial advisors would face a conflict recommending the fund at that price.
The bank’s financial advisors oversee a substantial pool of client assets. One source put that figure at approximately $9.3 trillion, while another cited $6.2 trillion. Either way, the firm's distribution network is central to the strategy.
Morgan Stanley
first filed for a spot Bitcoin and a spot Solana ETF in January 2026. Seyffart called those initial filings a "shocker" at the time. The bank filed for a staked
Ethereum ETF shortly after and appointed Amy Oldenburg as head of digital asset strategy by the end of January.
A subsequent amendment named Coinbase as prime broker and
BNY Mellon as custodian for cash custody and administration.
A later filing confirmed the MSBT ticker, a 10,000-share basket size, and a $1 million seed investment. The NYSE issued a listing notice for the fund earlier this week, a step that typically comes just before a launch. SpotBitcoinETF
If approved, MSBT would be the first spot Bitcoin ETF issued directly by a major U.S. bank. It would also be the first new entrant in the category since roughly a dozen funds launched in January 2024, aside from Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust.
Oldenburg said earlier this month that about 80% of crypto ETF activity on Morgan Stanley's platform comes from self-directed investors rather than advisor-managed accounts. A competitively priced proprietary product could shift that balance by reducing the cost objection that might otherwise discourage advisors from recommending a Bitcoin allocation.
Fees are one of the few meaningful differences between spot Bitcoin ETFs, since all of them hold
Bitcoin directly and track its price. Grayscale's flagship Bitcoin Trust charges 1.5% and has seen its assets decline from roughly $29 billion at its January 2024 ETF conversion to around $13 billion. Morgan Stanley also applied for a national trust banking charter on Feb. 18, seeking to custody digital assets and execute purchases, sales, and swaps for clients. ETF CryptoInvesting
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