Morgan Stanley has partnered with Zerohash, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, to enable E*Trade clients to trade cryptocurrency tokens starting in the first half of 2026. Zerohash will provide liquidity, custody, and settlement services.
Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth management, Jed Finn, confirmed that the bank will roll out major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ETH, and Solana, first and then seek to build a complete wallet solution for clients later. Morgan Stanley acquired E*Trade in 2020 in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $13 billion. The partnership resulted in a combined $3.3 trillion in client assets under management.
Finn says Morgan Stanley intends to capture both crypto and tokenized assets
Jed Finn, head of wealth management at the Investment Bank, confirmed that the bank intends to capture cryptocurrency and tokenized versions of assets, including cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate. He explained that tokenized substitutes for cash begin paying interest as soon as they hit the wallet, adding that the rest of the asset classes will follow suit in seeking such efficiency.
The partnership with Zerohash follows developments from May, when Morgan Stanley revealed that it was exploring a retail crypto service through E*Trade. Now Zerohash has emerged as the key driver of the bank’s transition towards a complete wallet solution for clients.
Zerohash, founded by Edward Woodford, has raised $104 million through series D funding, valuing it at $1 billion. Interactive Brokers led the funding round, which was accompanied by Morgan Stanley, Apollo Global Management, SoFi, and Jump Trading’s crypto arm. Zerohash provides backend services to banks and fintech firms, allowing them to offer blockchain-based products in areas such as crypto trading, stablecoins, and tokenized APIs.
According to Finn, E*Trade clients will be able to transact with digital assets directly through their brokerage accounts, providing an easy entry for retail investors. The collaboration positions the bank as a direct competitor to crypto exchanges and brokerage firms offering similar services. One notable brokerage firm with over $10.7 trillion in assets under management that expressed interest in providing similar services is Charles Schwab.
According to a Cryptopolitan report, Charles Schwab revealed in July that it will launch spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading as part of its growth strategy. CEO Rick Wurster confirmed that both BTC and ETH will serve as meaningful drivers for the firm.
Regulatory shift under Trump spurs brokerage firms to embrace crypto
The collaboration between Zerohash and Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade comes amid a regulatory-friendly environment for crypto projects in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies. The bills passed so far, including the GENEUS Act, have created a clearer path for brokerage firms and other crypto projects to expand their digital asset offerings.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also recently approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares, which aim to improve the speed of approving cryptocurrency ETFs. The rule allows listing exchanges such as NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX to list digital assets without requiring case-by-case approvals, reducing the previously stretched timelines.
According to a Cryptopolitan report, the decision follows the applications for Solana, Litecoin, and Dogecoin spot ETFs, which are in the pipeline for review with deadlines beginning in October.
The approval of ETFs, particularly Ethereum ETFs and Bitcoin ETFs, fueled the surge in price of ETH and Bitcoin, recording new all-time highs in July. The growth was largely due to institutional inflows through the ETFs. According to SosoValue data, Ethereum ETFs alone have a cumulative net inflow of $13.84 billion with total net assets of $27.52 billion. On the other hand, Bitcoin ETFs have a cumulative net inflow of $57.35 billion, with $148.09 billion, which is 6.5% of the total BTC market cap.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/morgan-stanley-partners-with-zerohash/
