Morgan Stanley Becomes First Wall Street Bank to Launch Bitcoin ETF

Morgan Stanley, a Wall Street bank with $19 trillion in assets under management, has become the 12th firm to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). This is the first time a bank in the United States will debut a BTC-backed ETF.

The fund, dubbed the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, will trade under the ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted that MSBT’s trading commences today. He projected that the fund would hit $30 million in volume on its first day and $5 billion in AUM in its first year.

BIG BOY LAUNCH: Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF $MBST hits the market today, arguably biggest btc launch since they began. Here are our predictions: $5b in aum in first year and $30m in Day One volume. What do you think? Winner gets a QT and a feeling of pride. pic.twitter.com/iQKpFJ80mU

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 8, 2026

Morgan Stanley Launches Bitcoin ETF

The Wall Street bank began processing approval for its Bitcoin ETF in January. The firm also filed for a Solana ETF at the time. Fast-forward to March, and Morgan Stanley submitted an amended Form S-1 to the securities regulator for the bitcoin-focused fund. This brought the company closer to gaining approval.

After receiving a green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Morgan Stanley revealed it would inject about $1 million in initial capital, along with 50,000 shares, to kick-start the newly launched fund. Coinbase Custody and BNY will serve as custodians for the fund’s BTC stash.

To attract as many investors as possible, MSBT will be the cheapest Bitcoin ETF, with an annual fee of 0.14%. This undercuts the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), which has 0.15% fee. Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s global head of ETFs, Allyson Wallace, emphasized the significance of the low fees, saying:

“We really wanted to show our commitment by having that lower fee. The demand, especially from the high-net-worth investors, has been quite high. Viewed at the firm level, this is an asset class that is not going away.”

Following news of MSBT’s debut, the bank’s common stock, MS, soared over 5% to $181.26. At the time of writing, it sold for $176, per Google Finance’s data.

With Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust now live, it is only a matter of time before its Solana-based counterpart hits the market.

Bitcoin Trades at $71K

Notably, Morgan Stanley’s debut of a Bitcoin fund comes when the underlying cryptocurrency is gradually recovering from its lows. For most of last month, BTC struggled to reach the $70,000 mark.

However, it has surpassed that level, surpassing $71,000 at the time of writing. This represents a 4.5% within the past 24 hours. The latest price increase coincides with news of a two-week halt to the Iran-U.S. war.

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