Morgan Stanley has completed the rollout of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana trading on E*TRADE, charging eligible clients a 0.50% fee on all transactions.
Summary
- IE*TRADE now allows eligible clients to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana with a fee of 0.50%.
- Morgan Stanley is planning a crypto transfer and move to its Digital Trust bank later this year.
- The release is in line with Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Holdings, crypto ETFs and Galaxy Digital’s lending arm.
IE*TRADE announced in a press release that supporting clients can now buy, sell and hold three digital assets directly through its trading platform. Zerohash provides the basic crypto infrastructure and holds assets in linked customer accounts.
Each transaction has a fee of 50 points, according to E*TRADE. While the current service includes trading and storage, the brokerage expects to launch crypto transfers later this year, allowing clients to move backed assets into and out of their accounts.
Following a pilot launched in May, the completed rollout makes the service available to all eligible E*TRADE customers. Morgan Stanley first revealed plans to add direct crypto trading by 2025.
Morgan Stanley is expanding several crypto services at the same time
The launch of E*TRADE comes as Morgan Stanley prepares to add two exchange-traded funds tied to Ethereum and Solana. As previously reported by crypto.news, the amended S-1 filing for both products indicated that their launch was nearing, although the filing did not provide a confirmed trading date.
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley also launched a Bitcoin ETF, becoming the first bank to offer such a product, according to a preliminary report. SoSoValue data showed the fund had accumulated $384 million in total assets during the reporting period.
Direct trading offers E*TRADE clients an alternative to crypto exposure alongside Morgan Stanley’s investment funds. Unlike ETF shares, the new service allows eligible users to hold the underlying Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through Zerohash, while the scheduled transfer feature will give customers control over moving those assets.
Morgan Stanley also increased its tracked Bitcoin balance by nearly 1,000 BTC in the two weeks prior to July 11, according to a crypto.news report published that day. The purchase raised its reported holdings to over 5,700 BTC at the time.
Digital Trust is set to take over the crypto service
Later this year, E*TRADE expects to move the crypto offering from Zerohash to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, an organized trust group bank. The brokerage linked that change to the launch of transfer services but did not give a specific start date.
Morgan Stanley applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier this year for a crypto-focused national trust bank charter. Its application placed the company alongside Coinbase, Crypto.com and Ripple, while the OCC has already granted Ripple conditional approval.
Circle also received OCC approval to establish a national trust bank focused on digital assets. The USDC issuer has received conditional approval for 2025 alongside BitGo, Fidelity and Paxos.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management added another crypto channel in June with a referral agreement with Galaxy Digital. Under this arrangement, eligible high-net-worth customers can borrow Bitcoin, Ether and Solana from Galaxy and receive shares in crypto investment products, including the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust.
Together, the issuance of ETRADE, the pending ETF launch and the trading of the Digital Trust application area, investment products, credit transmission and storage infrastructure within Morgan Stanley’s crypto systems have been disclosed. Each service is subject to different eligibility rules, fees and regulatory systems set by the companies involved.
