Morgan Stanley Seeks SEC Approval for Spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs

Morgan Stanley made a surprise entry into the race for crypto exchange-traded funds on Tuesday, submitting filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for products tied to Bitcoin and Solana. The filings, submitted on Jan. 6, 2026, signal a deepening commitment by the Wall Street bank to offer direct, regulated exposure to digital assets at a time when traditional financial firms are moving quickly to catch up with investor demand.

The news was quickly amplified on social media by the Solana ecosystem itself: “BREAKING: Morgan Stanley filed its first crypto ETFs ever: a Bitcoin ETF and a Solana ETF,” the account posted, showing how a mainstream bank’s regulatory steps can reverberate through the communities tied to individual blockchains. That tweet captured both the surprise and the excitement in the market, where the arrival of bank-backed ETFs is widely seen as another step toward mainstream institutional acceptance.

Growing Institutional Appetite

Reuters’ reporting on the filings notes that Morgan Stanley is seeking approval for funds that would track the prices of Bitcoin and Solana, marking a notable move from a major U.S. bank into issuing its own crypto-linked trusts rather than merely distributing third-party products. The filings follow months of preparatory moves by Morgan Stanley, including plans to offer crypto trading on its E*Trade platform, and come amid broader shifts in U.S. policy and market structure that have made ETF launches faster and more practicable for big firms.

Market watchers said the timing makes sense: the U.S. ETF landscape has already broadened beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, and earlier launches, including spot and staking-style products tied to Solana, prompted a scramble among asset managers to stake out shelf space in the growing altcoin ETF market. Bitwise’s earlier debut of a Solana-linked product and the subsequent rush of filings demonstrated how quickly entrants can capture investor flows when a product gains regulatory or listing traction.

Morgan Stanley’s S-1-style submissions put the bank in direct competition with a range of asset managers and financial institutions that have been lining up to offer crypto ETFs, and they highlight a new phase in which traditional incumbents are no longer content to be passive intermediaries to crypto exposure. Analysts and industry participants will be watching the SEC’s response closely; approval is not automatic and the pace of any green light will shape which issuers gain early advantage in what is already a fiercely competitive space.

For now, the filings themselves are a concrete demonstration that large, established financial firms believe there is sufficient client demand and regulatory runway to justify launching their own crypto trusts. Whether Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin and Solana ETFs ultimately win approval, and how much investor money they attract if they do, will be among the closely watched stories in the months ahead as Wall Street continues to build out its digital-asset offerings.