Morgan Stanley, an American investment banking giant with $6.2 trillion in assets under management (AUM), has now made a big crypto move.
According to Bloomberg’s ETF analyst Eric Balchunas’ recent X-post, Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will operate under the ticker $MBST starting April 8.
The banking giant first announced its plans to launch its Bitcoin [BTC] ETF on March 23, 2026, aiming to begin 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 at a 0.14% fee. This is much less compared to the largest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which has an annual fee of 0.25%.
Additionally, Farside Investor’s Bitcoin ETF Flow monitor has also been upgraded to include the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust ETF.
In addition to this launch, Morgan Stanley also filed for Spot Solana ETFs earlier this year. Additionally, the banking giant, in partnership with Zero Hash, has made plans to roll out E*Trade in the first half of 2026, enabling trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ethereum. [ETH]and Solana [SOL].
Change in sentiment
Traditional giants now see potential in the long-term value of crypto. This argument is supported by reports showing that crypto stands strong against traditional asset classes, despite escalating geopolitical unrest.
That said, Morgan Stanley is not alone in this crypto race. Recently, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, also emphasized the need for banks to catch up with blockchain technology to hold out against the “new competitors.”
Seeing this shift in sentiment among traditional investors, current Strategy CEO Phhong Lee decided noted,
In the past month, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab and Citadel – among the largest asset managers, broker-dealers and hedge funds in the world – announced plans to expand Bitcoin’s potential. Probably nothing.
Bitcoin price action and more
This is because the price of Bitcoin was trading at $71,732.65 at the time of writing, having risen 4.34% in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETF recorded outflows worth $159.1 million on April 7. However, just a day earlier, on April 6, it recorded a massive inflow worth $471.4 million.
Amid these changing dynamics, AMBCrypto still believes MSBT has the potential to break MSTR’s institutional Bitcoin bet.
While data from CryptoQuant shows that demand for Bitcoin treasury is largely concentrated in Strategy’s hands, the launch of MSBT could be a turning point for the overall institutional Bitcoin market.
Final summary
- Announced on March 23, 2026, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will go into effect on April 8, 2026.
- With an annual fee of 0.14% compared to IBIT’s 0.25%, MSBT is here to up the game of Wall Street’s crypto advancement.