Morgan Stanley has made history as the first major US bank — and the first global systemically important bank (G-SIB) — to launch its own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, trading on the New York Stock Exchange with an industry-beating 0.14% management fee.
The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) pulled in $34 million in net inflows on its first day of trading, immediately drawing comparisons to the fierce fee war that has defined the Bitcoin ETF market since BlackRock and Fidelity launched their products in early 2024.
Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley's managing director and head of digital asset strategy, said the launch was just the beginning of a broader crypto offensive from the Wall Street giant.
"The interesting thing is this is not the only product that we filed for," Oldenburg told CoinDesk from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. "We did celebrate within our teams that worked tirelessly over the last couple of months to build this, but we're back to the drawing board now. We have a couple other products to get out there."
Those products include filings for spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs, which Oldenburg confirmed are next in the pipeline. The bank is also rolling out direct spot crypto trading through its E*TRADE platform within weeks, giving wealth management clients multiple pathways into digital assets.
"We really have to start with the majors. That's where we're seeing the most demand," Oldenburg said. "What we want to do is give clients a number of different options to get out there and to get invested. If they want to use spot crypto trading, they can. If they want to use ETPs because it's more comfortable and something they're used to, that's also something we're offering."
The timing is significant. Bitcoin is currently trading near $75,000 — roughly the same level it was at in April 2024 when the first wave of Bitcoin ETFs launched. Oldenburg sees this as a strategic opportunity for investors who missed the initial entry point.
"Where the prices are on Bitcoin right now is just about the same as where we were in April of 2024 when the first Bitcoin ETPs went live," she noted. "You have some people that still haven't gotten position. They were waiting for that entry point, and I think there's an opportunity there."
The SEC's recent decision to allow in-kind transfers of spot cryptocurrency into ETF products has added another dimension to Morgan Stanley's strategy. Crypto holders can now move their existing positions into regulated ETF wrappers, gaining access to the bank's full wealth management platform.
"All of this is happening because there are additional services that we can offer in capital markets in the traditional business that just don't exist to date at the same scale within the crypto native business," Oldenburg explained.
Oldenburg was candid about Morgan Stanley's ambition to capture the estimated $3 trillion sitting in crypto-native wallets — assets held by investors who may want traditional financial services but have had limited options until now.
"There's a new client channel that has close to $3 trillion in assets within this crypto native channel that's also looking for services, financial services, and we're able to support that," she said.
Beyond ETFs and trading, Morgan Stanley is positioning itself at the forefront of the tokenization movement. The bank is working on tokenized money market funds, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits as part of what Oldenburg described as a "full evolution" of financial infrastructure.
"We need to continue to build the market infrastructure and the products to help support this sort of activity," she said. "We're starting with stablecoins, tokenized money market products within the industry. We've talked a lot about tokenized deposits and then tokenization of almost every asset class under the sun."
Oldenburg also pointed to the convergence of crypto infrastructure with artificial intelligence as a long-term trend that Morgan Stanley is watching closely.
"It's still hard to even visualize that where we have a super app and you might even have an agent optimizing your portfolio on your super app to make sure that's working for you in the background," she said. "A lot to be done to support that and we'll be there to do that."
The launch of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust has intensified the competition among Bitcoin ETF issuers. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart suggested the product may be designed partly to draw crypto-wealthy clients into Morgan Stanley's broader wealth management ecosystem — a theory Oldenburg did not dismiss.
"I think it was really important to have that Morgan Stanley brand on there. It's very recognizable," she said. "It's the first of its kind — dual G-SIB, both issued and also supported in the marketplace."