Wall Street banking giant Morgan Stanley has officially rolled out cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade online brokerage platform, entering the retail crypto market with an aggressive pricing strategy aimed directly at its competitors.
The firm is charging clients 50 basis points (0.50%) on the dollar value of each crypto transaction, according to a report by Bloomberg. The service is currently in pilot, with all of E*Trade’s 8.6 million clients expected to gain access later this year.
The pricing positions Morgan Stanley below several major competitors. Brokerage giant Charles Schwab, which launched its own spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in April, charges 75 basis points per transaction. Fidelity Crypto charges 1% on buy and sell orders.
Commission-free trading platform Robinhood Markets charges between 0.03% and 0.95% depending on the trade. Leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase Global charges fees that can run as high as 4% for retail users, though its Advanced Trade tier offers lower rates for high-volume traders.
Zerohash powers the backend
Digital asset infrastructure provider Zerohash is handling liquidity, custody, and settlement for the launch. Morgan Stanley previously took an equity stake in Zerohash when the startup raised $104 million in a Series D-2 funding round led by online brokerage firm Interactive Brokers.
Other participants in that round included Apollo-managed funds, venture arm Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, fintech company SoFi, and crypto trading firm Jump Crypto.
E*Trade clients will be able to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) at launch, gaining direct ownership of the digital assets rather than exposure through fund structures or ETFs. While direct ownership eliminates third-party management fees, it also comes with greater risk for investors.
Jed Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley, had previously described the crypto trading launch as only the beginning. The bank is also building a proprietary digital wallet expected to launch in the second half of 2026, designed to hold crypto alongside tokenized versions of traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate.
Part of a broader digital asset push
Today’s launch adds to Morgan Stanley’s rapidly expanding digital asset footprint. In April, the firm debuted its spot Bitcoin ETF, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), which attracted more than $100 million in inflows within its first week of trading. With a 0.14% expense ratio, MSBT is currently the cheapest spot Bitcoin ETF on the market. The fund began trading on April 8.
The bank also launched the Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio (MSNXX) on April 23, a government money market fund designed to meet the reserve requirements of payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. In February, Morgan Stanley filed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association, a federally chartered trust bank focused on crypto custody, trading, and staking services.
Since August 2024, Morgan Stanley has allowed its wealth advisers to actively pitch spot Bitcoin ETFs to eligible clients. CEO Ted Pick signaled the firm’s broader digital asset ambitions at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, saying the bank was exploring the transactional side of crypto.
The Wall Street crypto fee war heats up
The launch comes as traditional finance firms are racing to capture retail crypto volume. Charles Schwab went live with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in April at 75 basis points per transaction. Investment bank Goldman Sachs filed with the SEC on April 14 for a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, its first direct crypto investment product. Coinbase launched commission-free stock and ETF trading in late February as part of its push to become a multi-asset platform.
With 8.6 million E*Trade clients set to gain access and a fee that undercuts nearly every major player in the space, Morgan Stanley is making a clear statement that the retail crypto brokerage war is no longer just between crypto-native platforms.
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