Morgan Stanley (MS) Plows Ahead with Bitcoin ETF as Crypto Market Tanks

Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) is pushing ahead with the launch of a new spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) even as the market for cryptocurrencies tanks.

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More than a few analysts are questioning the timing of Morgan Stanley’s plan to launch a Bitcoin ETF with the price of BTC back below $70,000 and down nearly 50% from an all-time high of $126,000 reached last October. Prices for other digital assets are similarly depressed amidst what’s being called a crypto winter.

Yet Morgan Stanley is undeterred and has filed with U.S. securities regulators to launch a Bitcoin ETF that will trade under the ticker symbol “MSBT” in coming weeks. The Wall Street investment bank also plans to launch the new ETF with $1 million of seed investment, which is the money used to launch the fund.

A Long-Term View on Crypto

Morgan Stanley’s determination to move ahead with its Bitcoin ETF highlights the growing push among banks to offer cryptocurrency products to their customers. In announcing the new fund, Morgan Stanley said it is taking a long-term view of crypto and providing access to digital assets for its customers.

Like other crypto ETFs, Morgan Stanley’s fund will provide investors with exposure to Bitcoin without requiring them to own it, tracking the digital asset’s spot price on the open market. There are currently about a dozen spot Bitcoin ETFs that have a combined $56 billion of assets under management.

BTC’s Three-Month Performance

The chart below shows that Bitcoin has struggled in recent months and declined 16.45% in the last 12 weeks as the selloff in cryptocurrencies that began in October 2025 continues.

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