Morgan Stanley, an American investment banking giant with $6.2 trillion in assets under management (AUM), has now made a major crypto move.
According to Bloomberg’s ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas’ recent X post, Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will be effective from the 8th of April under the ticker $MBST.
The banking giant first announced its plans to launch its Bitcoin [BTC] ETF on the 23rd of March, 2026, aiming to start trading on NYSE Arca.
How Morgan Stanley’s MSBT launch stands out
With this move, Morgan Stanley becomes the first traditional bank to offer a Bitcoin ETF with a 0.14% fee. This is much less compared to the biggest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which has an annual fee of 0.25%.
Additionally, the Farside Investor’s Bitcoin ETF Flow monitor has also upgraded to include the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust ETF.
Besides this launch, Morgan Stanley also filed for Spot Solana ETFs earlier this year. Additionally, the banking giant has made plans in collaboration with Zero Hash to roll out E*Trade in the first half of 2026, enabling trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum [ETH], and Solana [SOL].
Shift in sentiment
Traditional giants are now seeing potential in the long-term value of crypto. Supporting this argument are reports that show crypto standing strong against traditional asset classes despite escalating geopolitical turmoil.
That being said, Morgan Stanley is not alone in this crypto race. Recently, JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon also highlighted the need for banks to catch up with blockchain technology to stand firm against the “new competitors.”
Seeing this shift in sentiment from traditional investors, Strategy’s now CEO, Phhong Lee, noted,
In the last month, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, and Citadel — among the world’s largest wealth managers, broker-dealers, and hedge funds — have announced plans to build Bitcoin capabilities. Probably nothing.
Bitcoin price action and more
This comes as Bitcoin’s price was trading at $71,732.65 at press time after a hike of 4.34% in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETF recorded outflows worth $159.1 million on the 7th of April. However, it did record a massive inflow worth $471.4 million just a day before, on the 6th of April.
Amidst these changing dynamics, AMBCrypto still believes that MSBT has the potential to break MSTR’s institutional Bitcoin bet.
Though CryptoQuant data shows that Bitcoin treasury demand is mostly concentrated in the hands of Strategy, the MSBT launch could be a turning point for the overall institutional Bitcoin market.
Final Summary
- Announced on the 23rd of March, 2026, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will be effective from the 8th of April, 2026.
- With 0.14% annual fees in comparison to IBIT’s 0.25%, MSBT is here to uplift the game of Wall Street’s crypto strides.
