Morgan Stanley Just Undercut Ethereum, Solana ETF Markets

Ethereum and solana exchange-traded funds just got a little cheaper.

Morgan Stanley joined the fray of issuers offering crypto products that track the performance of solana and ethereum late last month after launching a similar bitcoin product in April. The move marks the latest effort by the wirehouse to build up its crypto offerings for coin-crazed clients and could place downward fee pressure on other issuers. The Morgan Stanley products have an expense ratio of just 0.14%, which, among solana products, is several basis points lower than existing offerings from Grayscale and Bitwise, whose Solana staking ETFs have fees of 0.19% and 0.20%, respectively.

“[Morgan Stanley’s new ETFs] do have the lowest fees of the group … It’s very close, but they are still the lowest-fee product,” said Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi. “It’s something that’s very appetizing, especially to retail investors who are mindful of fees.”

Last One’s a Rotten Coin

With new crypto offerings, Morgan Stanley, which has often been the first among its wirehouse peers to venture into crypto, is tapping into a huge wealth network to give retail investors access to popular coins. The bank announced last month that some clients can now buy, sell and hold bitcoin, sol and ether via E*Trade, its self-directed brokerage platform. “They have a lot going on in-house where these products can be distributed,” Islam said. “So that’s another huge catalyst for Morgan Stanley to launch these [funds].” The wirehouse’s Bitcoin Trust has already surpassed $400 million in assets, placing it solidly in the largest 15 products despite its relatively recent inception, according to ETF.com data.