Morgan Stanley's E*TRADE has officially launched spot cryptocurrency trading for eligible retail clients, enabling them to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) through a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash.
Clients can now view their digital asset holdings alongside stocks and other traditional investments on the E*TRADE platform. Transfer functionality for moving cryptocurrencies on and off the platform is expected to be added later this year. The self-directed channel served 8.6 million households and held approximately $1.56 trillion in client assets as of March 31, according to Morgan Stanley's latest financial supplement.
Fee structure and custody details
Trades on the platform carry a 50-basis-point fee, while custody and transaction services are handled through separate Zero Hash accounts. These accounts are not covered by FDIC or SIPC protections. Morgan Stanley said it plans to eventually transition the digital asset services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, its national trust bank that is currently being organized.
The rollout follows a pilot program launched in May, where the company tested the service with a limited group of users before expanding access to eligible E*TRADE clients. Alongside the crypto offering, Morgan Stanley introduced several non-crypto updates, including fractional share trading, a revamped retirement planning tool and new features for its Power E*TRADE Pro desktop platform.
Broader crypto strategy
Beyond retail spot trading, Morgan Stanley has been expanding its digital asset business throughout 2025. In April, the Wall Street giant launched a stablecoin reserve service that allows issuers to hold the assets backing their tokens in one of the firm's money market funds while earning interest. That same month, it launched a spot Bitcoin ETF with a 0.14% management fee, making it the lowest-cost Bitcoin ETF on the U.S. market at the time.
The ETF debuted on NYSE Arca as the first spot Bitcoin ETF launched by a major U.S. commercial bank. During its first six trading days, it attracted more than $100 million in net inflows, surpassing the cumulative inflows of WisdomTree's spot Bitcoin ETF, which launched in January 2024. As of the announcement, the fund has attracted about $385 million in cumulative net inflows, according to SoSoValue data. In June, Morgan Stanley amended its proposed spot Ether and Solana ETF filings to set management fees at 0.14% after first applying to list the funds in January.