Wall Street Giant Morgan Stanley to Launch Retail Crypto Trading Platform on E-Trade

• Morgan Stanley teaming with ZeroHash to bring BTC ETH SOL trading on E-Trade.
• Retail customers get crypto access by 2026 with tokenized assets expansion planned after launch.

Morgan Stanley announced plans to bring cryptocurrency trading to its E-Trade platform in the first half of 2026 through a partnership with Zerohash. The move will allow retail clients to trade bitcoin, ether, and solana directly on the platform.

Jed Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a memo,

At launch, trading will focus on the three most traded digital tokens. Bitcoin currently dominates the market with about $2.24 trillion in capitalization and trades near $112,683. Ether follows with roughly $504 billion, priced at $4,173, while Solana stands at $114.6 billion, trading around $210.

Tokenized Assets Poised to Disrupt Wealth

E-Trade, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020, allows clients access to stocks, ETFs, bonds, and options. Integrating digital tokens reflects the bank’s broader plan to unify traditional investments and digital assets under one platform.

In his memo, Finn described the bank is preparing a wallet solution to act as custodian for client assets. He stressed that “offering clients the ability to trade crypto is the tip of the iceberg.” 

The strategy also includes support for tokenized assets. According to Finn, these digital versions of cash, stocks, bonds, or even real estate could “significantly disrupt” wealth management models that have existed for decades.

Finn emphasized the appeal of tokenized cash. “Tokenized substitutes for cash begin paying interest as soon as it hits the wallet,” he said. “The rest of the asset classes will follow suit in seeking this efficiency.”

He added that distributed ledger technology offers opportunities beyond simple crypto trading. Finn added,

Wall Street Giants Race into Crypto

The plan comes at a time when global crypto assets are valued at nearly $3.89 trillion. This has shifted digital currencies from once-dismissed speculation to a major component of mainstream finance.

Other brokerages like Robinhood currently provide a wide range of digital assets trading, while Charles Schwab gives exposure to ETFs tied to bitcoin and ether. The competition highlights the growing demand among retail traders.

Supportive U.S. regulatory attitudes under the Trump administration also encouraged major financial institutions to expand into this area. Morgan Stanley’s step with E-Trade builds on this momentum, pushing the bank deeper into retail crypto.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s partner Zerohash reached unicorn status after securing $104 million in new funding. Investors included Interactive Brokers, SoFi, and Morgan Stanley itself, signaling Wall Street’s widening interest in blockchain infrastructure.