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Morgan Stanley filed for registration of its own exchange-traded fund
Financial corporation Morgan Stanley submitted a second amendment to Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The document предусматривает the creation of a trust under the ticker MSBT on the NYSE Arca trading platform.
Approval of the initiative will make the organization the first major U.S. bank to issue a base market instrument for Bitcoin. Undoubtedly, this marks a fundamental shift in the strategy of the Wall Street giant. The institution is moving away from distributing third-party products in favor of directly earning management fees.
Transition from distributor to issuer
In the summer of 2024, management allowed financial advisors to recommend cryptocurrency assets to clients. Initially, specialists directed investors to funds from BlackRock and Fidelity. However, by early 2026, more than 15,000 employees were authorized to actively offer such investment options. They no longer simply waited for relevant client requests.
The economic rationale fully explains this shift. Issuing its own asset allows the bank to collect management fees ranging from 0.20% to 0.30%. Previously, the corporation only earned a share from distributing competitors’ products. The institution manages approximately $1.8 trillion in assets. Therefore, even a minimal reallocation of funds would generate substantial profits.
The updated documentation reveals important operational details. The share price will be calculated daily using the CoinDesk benchmark at the close of trading in New York. The trust will start with 50,000 initial shares, generating approximately $1 million in initial revenue.
Allocation of custody responsibilities
The developers carefully distributed custodial functions between two independent entities. Coinbase Custody Trust Company will handle the physical storage of coins in cold wallets. Meanwhile, BNY Mellon will act as the custodian of cash, administrator, and transfer agent.
The new architecture supports the creation and redemption of shares both in fiat and in-kind form. This mechanism is specifically designed for authorized institutional participants. Large players require maximum flexibility when entering and exiting trading positions.
Moreover, the conglomerate’s ambitions are not limited to a single asset. In January of this year, the company submitted documents to launch an Ethereum-based ETF with staking capabilities. A day earlier, the regulator received a prospectus for registering a Solana-based trust. This product also предусматривает locking part of reserves for quarterly reward distributions to shareholders.
Rising competition in the institutional capital market
As of March 2026, the U.S. regulator is reviewing more than 126 related applications. The financial giant is entering the arena during a period of rapidly intensifying competition for liquidity.
A year earlier, Goldman Sachs acquired Innovator for $2 billion. This entity now holds exchange-traded crypto products worth $2.4 billion. At the same time, Merrill Lynch allowed its advisors to make direct recommendations. Fidelity recently modified its Ethereum offering to integrate staking mechanisms.
Meanwhile, analysts are awaiting decisions on eight proposals based on XRP. A positive decision could attract between $5 billion and $7 billion in immediate inflows. JPMorgan experts predict strong interest from pension funds, which could contribute up to $130 billion annually to the regulated industry.
The success of the new product will directly depend on the yet undisclosed fee structure. This will determine its competitiveness against BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC, both charging 0.25%. The pricing strategy will reveal how aggressively the bank intends to compete for capital.
