Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF ready for ‘imminent’ launch. Here’s why that’s a big deal

A few years ago, few could have imagined that Morgan Stanley would launch its own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

After all, its former top executive, James Gorman, said in 2024 that he never understood the value of Bitcoin.

Things have changed now, and with the “imminent” launch of a Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF, the $83 billion already sitting in Bitcoin ETFs is about to get a whole lot bigger.

On social media, Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, shared a screenshot of a pending listing for the bank’s ETF under the ticker MSBT.

Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond for comment.

Morgan Stanley operates the largest network of financial advisors in the United States, with roughly 16,000 advisors managing over $6.2 trillion in client assets.

That’s double the combined assets of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan’s wealth management units, he said.

“First bank to do a Bitcoin ETF (unthinkable couple years ago),” Balchunas wrote on X. “But not just any bank, a big boy bank with the largest network of financial advisors.”

When BlackRock and 11 others launched Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, banks like Morgan Stanley took a more cautious approach.

They allowed some of their advisors to offer third-party Bitcoin ETFs only to select wealthy clients.

Fast forward two years, and Morgan Stanley is putting its own name on a Bitcoin fund.

The new ETF gives Morgan Stanley’s 16,000 advisors a proprietary Bitcoin product they can recommend without routing clients to a competitor’s fund.

16,000 advisors

The ETF move is part of a larger push from the bank to embrace crypto in the US.

Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said in January that the bank was working with the US Treasury Department and other regulators to launch crypto products.

In February, Morgan Stanley also joined a growing list of companies filing for a banking charter to custody cryptocurrencies.

Morgan Stanley’s competitive edge is its advisor network.

While retail investors can buy BlackRock’s IBIT themselves, many wealthy investors rely on financial advisors to construct portfolios.

Those advisors have traditionally been gatekeepers, either recommending Bitcoin exposure or dismissing it.

Some market watchers forecast strong interest from Morgan Stanley clients.

Morgan Stanley would not be launching their own Bitcoin ETF “unless it believes that Bitcoin will be a persistent allocation across its wealth management client base,” said John Haar, head of private services at Bitcoin-focused financial services company Swan Bitcoin.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 0.7% over the past 24 hours, trading at $71,223.
• Ethereum rose 0.3% in the last day to $2,164.

What we’re reading

• Bitcoin price holds steady as investors flee gold. Have safe-haven roles finally reversed? — DL News
• Bitcoin Is in Uncertain Territory. Could Strategy’s STRC Be the Last Straw? — Unchained
• Will the war cause a global recession? — Milk Road
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Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.