Morgan Stanley, a leading Wall Street bank with approximately $1.9 trillion in assets under management, is nearing the launch of its first spot Bitcoin ETF. It is stated that the fund, which is expected to be traded on NYSE Arca with the code MSBT, will open on Wednesday if permission is granted. This move by Morgan Stanley will be the twelfth to launch, following the first 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US.
Low cost and new solution strategies
Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will offer investors access to cryptocurrency without directly holding Bitcoin themselves. The fund will hold actual Bitcoins and will be based on CoinDesk’s relevant day closing rate. Custody of assets will be managed by BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody.
A standout feature of the fund is its low annual operating fee. At 0.14 percent, Morgan Stanley offers a more affordable cost compared to the 0.25 percent on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust fund. This advantage will allow the fund to stand out from other competitors in the market. It is initially planned to open for business with a capital of approximately 1 million dollars and 50 thousand shares.
The fund will not use leverage or derivative products and will not employ active trading strategies. In this way, a performance exactly parallel to Bitcoin’s price movements is aimed.
Market impacts and corporate interest
Morgan Stanley is accelerating its steps in the digital asset field. The company also applied for spot Solana ETFs in recent months. Thanks to the cooperation with Zero Hash, the bank plans to enable Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana trading on the E*Trade platform in the first half of 2026.
In the investment world, spot Bitcoin ETFs have become an important tool for institutional investors. The first 11 spot funds launched in January 2024 have attracted a total of more than $56 billion in net inflows since then. Thus, interest in the cryptocurrency world continues to increase.
Along with these funds, interest in derivative products is also gaining momentum. It is considered that especially option transactions related to the iShares Bitcoin Trust fund affected the fluctuations in the Bitcoin price in February.
Such investment instruments, which have been introduced in recent years, accelerate the integration of Bitcoin into the mainstream financial system and reduce volatility levels. In the market, Bitcoin’s volatility has begun to move more in line with Wall Street’s fear index, the VIX. It is observed that volatility increases during price decreases and decreases during price increases.
The new ETF to be launched by Morgan Stanley is expected to strengthen these trends observed in market dynamics.
