Morgan Stanley filed amended registration statements for proposed Ethereum and Solana ETF trusts on June 18, setting an annual delegated sponsorship fee of 0.14% for both products.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described the proposed fee as the lowest among ETH and SOL products globally.
The ETH trust, which is expected to trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSSE, plans to follow ether and stake rewards from some of its holdings. The SOL trust (MSOL) plans to take up to 100% of its Solana.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) has a sponsorship fee of 0.25%, Grayscale’s mini Ether (ETH) product is at 0.15%, Bitwise’s Solana staking ETF (BSOL) launched at 0.20%, and Franklin Templeton’s Solana ETF (SOEZ) lists a net expense ratio of 0.19%.
The filings are preliminary and the SEC must declare both registration statements effective prior to stock trading; neither application reached that threshold.
The honorarium as a position
Morgan Stanley’s 14 basis points on a crypto ETF indicates where the firm expects the institutional allocation conversation to go.
Bitcoin ETFs solved the access problem for institutions, with BlackRock’s IBIT crossing the $70 billion mark in assets under management within 18 months of launch.
The next question for asset managers and advisors is whether ETH and SOL, packaged cheaply and reliably enough, can take a second line alongside Bitcoin in a digital asset case.
Morgan Stanley’s 0.14% fee positions these products as portfolio building blocks before the allocation question has a widely accepted answer.
The ETH trust plans to stake 50% to 80% of its shares under normal market conditions, with service providers and custodians expected to receive a total of 5% of the rewards and the trust retaining the rest.
The SOL trust extends that model further, allowing up to 100% of holdings to be deployed under the same 95% trust retention structure, with the delegated sponsor explicitly not receiving any share of the staking rewards.
Using Bitwise’s disclosed concurrent gross stake reward rate of 6.28% as a market benchmark, a fully staked SOL product that retains 95% of the rewards would generate approximately 5.97% before the 14 basis points fee.
For ETH, the retained staking contribution at a hypothetical gross staking yield of 3% with 50% to 80% stakes is between approximately 1.29% and 2.14% after fees.
Advisors comparing these products compare cost-minus-staking economics, such as the trust’s gross return, stake staked, and 95% retention rate, which together determine the effective cost of exposure.
| Product | Grand prize | Stake out share | Retention of trust rewards | Illustrative retained return before compensation | Illustrative net after compensation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Stanley ETH Trust | 0.14% | 50%–80% of ETH | 95% | 1.43%–2.28% | 1.29%–2.14% |
| Morgan Stanley SOL Trust | 0.14% | Up to 100% SOL | 95% | 5.97% | 5.83% |
What the flow data supports
Institutional rotation to ETH and SOL has occurred in fits and starts in 2026, with episodic demand and no sustainable regime.
CoinShares’ week, reported on May 18, showed Bitcoin products absorbing $982 million in outflows, while SOL attracted $55.1 million in inflows and ETH saw $249 million in exits.
Around May 25, US spot ETF data showed that BTC ETFs lost about 16,595 BTC in seven days, while SOL ETFs added 192,835 SOL, about $16.58 million, while ETH ETFs lost 105,862 ETH.
In the week reported on June 1, BTC saw outflows of $1.44 billion and ETH $257 million, while the positive pockets were XRP at $20.3 million, Hyperliquid at $10.8 million and NEAR at $7.6 million.
On June 17, US ETH ETFs reported one-day inflows of 9,361 ETH, approximately $16.4 million, while seven-day ETH flows were still negative at the end of the week.
The pattern over those weeks is that SOL picks up demand, while ETH lags behind the outflow rate of Bitcoin itself, with alt-specific bids landing on XRP and Hyperliquid, and the ETH/SOL pair failing to attract a sustainable bid as a unit.
Morgan Stanley is positioning itself for a rotation that the data shows as episodic and incomplete. The bank operates in 42 countries and Morgan Stanley Investment Management reported approximately $1.8 trillion in assets under management or supervision as of September 30, 2025.
That distribution range means a 14 basis point fee is also a bid for shelf space for advisors. When an asset manager at a Morgan Stanley affiliate decides to add non-Bitcoin crypto exposure, MSSE and MSOL are already priced to win the comparison.
Two timelines for the same bet
The bull scenario requires four or more weeks of combined ETH and SOL inflows, while Bitcoin flows plateau, with weekly SOL inflows going from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.
If that rotation comes, 14 basis points will become a structural weapon: competitors with a rate of 0.19% to 0.25% will face the choice of reducing fees or ceding market share to a brand with Morgan Stanley’s distribution reach.
A fully deployed SOL product that retains 95% of the rewards at 14 basis points makes the economics versus an undeployed competitor at 20 basis points difficult to justify on the numbers alone.
The argument is that the macroeconomic backdrop is causing institutions to hold Bitcoin positions or cash equivalent exposures for longer than the product filing timeline expects.
The Fed kept its policy rate at 3.50% to 3.75% through mid-2026, with nearly half of policymakers predicting a possible rate hike this year and revising inflation forecasts upward.
In that environment, the allocation for ETH and SOL as portfolio components faces a stricter cost of capital argument than in 2024.
Low fees and strike returns require an allocation case that advisors can justify to the client before the influx manifests.
The SEC’s effectiveness timeline adds a separate procedural layer of uncertainty: the staking treatment, custody arrangements, and tax settlements may all require further changes before either product begins trading.
The prize Morgan Stanley is competing for is advisor shelf space in the allocation cycle that follows Bitcoin normalization.
By the time institutions broadly adopt ETH and SOL as portfolio appropriate, Morgan Stanley’s low-fee crypto ETFs with staking pass-through could have a structural first-mover advantage.