- Morgan Stanley filed preliminary S-1s on Jan. 6, 2026 for two passive spot crypto ETFs: a Bitcoin Trust and a Solana Trust.
- The Bitcoin fund would hold BTC directly, while the Solana fund would track SOL and include staking rewards.
- The launch would shift Morgan Stanley from distributing third-party crypto products to issuing its own for its roughly 19 million wealth clients amid easing SEC listing standards.
- Approval timing, fees/listing details, custody/security setup, and the regulatory and operational treatment of Solana staking remain key unknowns.
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This move represents a strategic pivot. Previously Morgan Stanley’s involvement in crypto largely consisted of distributing third-party crypto products and limiting client access to those with high risk tolerance or net worth. Now the bank is creating its own branded product suite, aiming to internalize fee generation while leveraging its wealth management scale—19 million clients as of April 2025.
Regulatory conditions have been aligning to make such filings more feasible. Under the current SEC regime, generic listing standards (adopted in September 2025) simplify how spot crypto ETFs can go live without bespoke rule changes. Moreover, the bank’s filing follows other firms’ efforts to offer altcoin-based ETFs (Solana, XRP) and reflects investor demand amid rising flows: spot Bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $700 million in net inflows in a single day at the start of 2026 and cumulative US spot crypto ETF trading volume has surpassed $2 trillion.
Still, material risks and uncertainties remain. Key among them are SEC approval timelines; fee levels and listing decisions; custody and security arrangements (e.g. extent of cold- vs hot-wallet storage); regulatory classification of Solana under securities laws; how staking rewards will be managed and distributed; and how Morgan Stanley will distinguish its products in an already crowded crypto ETF market, where BlackRock’s IBIT currently has tens of billions of dollars in assets under management.
Strategically, Morgan Stanley’s entry could signal to other large traditional banks that with sufficient regulatory clarity, launching in-house crypto ETFs is a viable playshift in their wealth product mix. If approved, such products could accelerate institutional crypto adoption, rebalance fee capture toward issuers, and deepen integration of digital asset exposure into mainstream portfolios. However, success will depend heavily on execution and market timing.
Supporting Notes
- Morgan Stanley filed the S-1 registration statements on January 6, 2026 with the SEC for two spot crypto ETFs: the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust.
- The Bitcoin Trust will directly hold Bitcoin, tracking price net of fees without leverage; the Solana Trust includes staking rewards and passive tracking of Solana’s spot price.
- These proposed ETPs are ‘passive’ investment vehicles; the sponsor will not engage in speculative trading of the underlying tokens.
- Custodial structure: ‘substantial portion’ of private keys in cold storage, remainder in hot wallet; trustee designated as CSC Delaware Trust Company.
- Morgan Stanley’s wealth management client base of ~19 million offers a broad potential distribution channel for these ETFs.
- The market for spot crypto ETFs has by this point exceeded $2 trillion in cumulative trading volume; Bitcoin-focused funds like BlackRock’s IBIT have seen massive inflows and scale.