Morgan Stanley previously launched the MSBT Bitcoin ETF and applied for Ethereum and Solana ETFs. This E*TRADE spot trading continues its path of distributing digital assets through its wealth management network, having earlier restricted client exposure to crypto due to risk control, now shifting towards active integration.

Capital is shifting from traditional brokerage to crypto infrastructure, with Morgan Stanley holding equity in ZeroHash and leveraging it for custody and settlement, while planning wallet services and crypto-to-ETF conversion features, focusing resources on bridging traditional accounts with on-chain assets.

Similar to Charles Schwab's recent launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading and Fidelity's crypto product layout, Morgan Stanley is currently in a phase of traditional financial institutions fully embracing retail crypto, rapidly capturing market share with its 8.6 million client base.

Essentially, this is about capital concentration: large banks leverage regulatory compliance advantages and existing client networks to consolidate fragmented retail crypto trading flows into their ecosystems, with technology replacing the intermediary role of traditional pure crypto platforms, gradually shifting pricing power from Coinbase, Robinhood, etc., to Wall Street.

ABAB News · Cognitive Law

The deeper the regulatory moat, the later traditional capital enters but the more thoroughly it reaps rewards.
Infrastructure partners are not costs, but multipliers that amplify existing client pools.
Fee wars are merely superficial; the real competition is for account stickiness and control over the entire asset lifecycle.