Morgan Stanley Investment Management listed the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, MSBT, on NYSE Arca on 8 April 2026. The firm is the first U.S. bank-affiliated asset manager to offer a cryptocurrency exchange-traded product.

Ally Wallace, global head of ETF strategy at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said in a statement: “ETPs remain a powerful way for investors to gain exposure to new asset classes within a transparent and regulated framework. With MSBT, we’re extending our product offering to meet growing client interest in digital assets.”

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg, said on X:

Trading day is half over and $MSBT is at $27m in volume so it's def going to clear my $30m estimate. Prob end up around $50m, which is huge, Top 1% of ETF launches, only two I can recall that were in this range in past year are $BSOL, $XRPC and $DRAM (all around $60m) pic.twitter.com/RylAwtAVz9

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 8, 2026

SEMI-SHOCK: Morgan Stanley's bitcoin ETF will charge 14bps, making it the cheapest spot bitcoin ETF on the market and 11bps cheaper than $IBIT. This means none of their advisors will feel conflicted using it and they have shot at getting outside assets. Smart. Launch prob in next… https://t.co/hxg3O1y6tR pic.twitter.com/BEiguHtXzo

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 27, 2026

Nic Puckrin, chief executive of  Coin Bureau, a digital platform dedicated to cryptocurrency education and information, said: “Morgan Stanley has $1.9T in AUM and 15,000 financial advisors. That’s a distribution channel BlackRock doesn’t have. The institutionalisation of Bitcoin just got a new chapter.”

Morgan Stanley just launched the cheapest Bitcoin ETF on the market.

0.14% annual fee.

BlackRock charges 0.25%. Fidelity charges 0.25%. Every major competitor charges more.

The largest wealth manager in the US just entered the Bitcoin ETF race and opened with the lowest price…

— Nic (@nicrypto) April 8, 2026

Phong Le, chief executive of bitcoin treasury company Strategy, said:

In the last month, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, and Citadel — among the world’s largest wealth managers, broker-dealers, and hedge funds — have announced plans to build Bitcoin capabilities. Probably nothing.

— Phong Le (@phongle) April 6, 2026

The ETP tracks the performance of bitcoin as measured by the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate, which is calculated by aggregating executed trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges. The ETP’s delegated sponsor fee of 0.14% is currently the lowest bitcoin ETP sponsor fee, according to Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Coinbase and BNY are providing digital asset custody services for MSBT. BNY is also the administrator and transfer agent and will provide accounting, recordkeeping and cash management services.

Digital asset strategy

Morgan Stanley Investment Management said the launch reflects a continued, firmwide focus to develop digital asset solutions to meet evolving client demand. For example, Morgan Stanley recently appointed dedicated leadership to guide digital asset strategies across the firm and is making ongoing efforts to expand institutional-grade capabilities across custody, trading and product development.

Amy Oldenburg, head of digital asset strategy at Morgan Stanley, said in a statement: “Digital assets are increasingly intersecting with traditional markets, and our focus is on helping clients access that evolution through structures they understand and trust.”

Oldenburg was previously head of emerging markets equity at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and took on her current role in February 2026, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In addition, Morgan Stanley’s retail broker E*TRADE is due to launch trading for  bitcoin, ethereum, and solana in the first half of this year, in partnership with Zerohash, a digital asset infrastructure provider.

Crypto ETF demand

Crypto exchange BitGo said in its Market Pulse newsletter that bitcoin spot ETFs accumulated $1.3bn in net inflows in March this year, breaking a four-month streak of outflows. The newsletter said: “Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded their first month of net inflows since October, a notable reversal after several consecutive months of redemptions that saw outflows peak near -35K BTC in November 2025.”

Matthew Kimmell, digital asset analyst at CoinShares, said in the European asset manager’s 2026 outlook that last year was transformative as bitcoin became meaningfully integrated into the fabric of the U.S. financial system. He highlighted that bitcoin has been securitised into a preferred product structure, the spot physical ETF; an options market has formed around the top ETF in this structure, which has reduced volatility; and regulators have removed restrictions in retirement plans.

However he still believes that institutions “have not yet arrive“ for bitcoin.

“Despite Bitcoin securities being green-lit by the SEC, and traded on US exchanges, they are still seriously limited in access along the primary wealth management channels,” said Kimmell. “Those that manage money are often restricted in one form or another — in what they can actively recommend/solicit, which clients can hold allocations, which account types are eligible, or the size of allocations allowed.”

Kimmell’s expectations for 2026 included:

“The four major US wirehouses formally open solicited Bitcoin ETF allocations within discretionary portfolios (Morgan Stanley, Merrill, UBS, Wells Fargo).

– At least one major 401(k) provider allows bitcoin allocations via the ETFs (Fidelity, Empower, Vanguard, Principal).

– At least two major custody banks begin providing services to directly custody and settlebitcoin transactions for institutional clients (JPM, BNY, State Street, Citi)”

Financial services group BBH said in its 2026 Global ETF Investor Survey that investors are embracing active strategies. The report said: “Investors are returning to basics, counting on equities and fixed income for alpha while largely shying away from riskier bets, with downshifts in enthusiasm from last year in areas such as crypto.”

BBH said that as crypto prices have fallen, enthusiasm for the asset type is “chilling.”

“Last year, crypto was tied for the top spot (26%) for asset classes investors thought would see the best performance over the following 12 months,” added BBH. “Crypto is now fourth in that ranking at 11%.”