Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF lists on the NYSE, with a 0.14% fee—lower than BlackRock’s.

Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin trust MSBT (Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust) will be officially listed on April 8 on the New York Stock Exchange Arca market, becoming the first large commercial bank in the United States to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, and also the first newly launched spot Bitcoin ETF in the market in nearly two years. MSBT’s management fee is set at 0.14%, which is lower than BlackRock’s IBIT.

MSBT Listing Background: First for Major Banks and the End of a Two-Year Market Gap

The New York Stock Exchange officially issued a listing notice this Tuesday, confirming that MSBT will be listed on April 8. This listing has two major historical implications: first, it is the first time a U.S. large commercial bank has directly launched a spot Bitcoin ETF product; second, it is the first new spot Bitcoin ETF to appear in the market since July 2024, breaking the two-year pattern of exclusive new product launches dominated by BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC.

MSBT’s initial size is 10k shares, with seed investment capital of $1 million. The custodian will be jointly handled by Coinbase and BNY Mellon. Bitwise advisor Jeff Park commented that Morgan Stanley’s launch of a Bitcoin ETF is a positive signal for the market. He emphasized that “the market size is far beyond what crypto professionals were expecting, especially given that there is still a lot of unmet demand in attracting new customers,” and said that even after IBIT became the ETF to reach $80 billion in assets under management (AUM) faster than any other, “we’re still in an extremely early stage.”

Fee Competition: How 0.14% Could Change the Spot Bitcoin ETF Market Landscape

MSBT’s 0.14% management fee is the core competitive factor drawing the most market attention in this listing.

Comparison of Existing Major Spot Bitcoin ETF Fees

Morgan Stanley MSBT: 0.14% (currently the lowest in the entire market)

Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (GBTC Mini): 0.15%

BlackRock IBIT: 0.25%

Fidelity FBTC: 0.25%

MSBT is 11 basis points lower than BlackRock and Fidelity, and 1 basis point lower than Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust. Analysts noted that prior similar fee differentials had led Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) assets to migrate on a large scale to lower-fee competing products, and that Morgan Stanley’s pricing strategy has been viewed by the industry as “smart and competitive,” with the potential to trigger a similar asset reallocation effect. BlackRock and Fidelity have already recorded a combined net inflow of $74.3 billion since the launch of their ETFs, but Morgan Stanley believes there is still a great deal of real demand in the market that remains unmet.

A Comprehensive Expansion of Morgan Stanley’s Crypto Footprint

The listing of MSBT is one of Morgan Stanley’s core moves in its systematic plan to expand into the crypto market in 2026. In January this year, the firm applied to list an Ethereum (Ethereum) staking ETF and a Solana ETF. In February, it also applied to regulators for a license for a National Trust Bank, aiming to provide customers with services including custody of crypto assets, buy-sell swaps, and staking.

This series of initiatives shows that Morgan Stanley is extending its digital asset business beyond the investment advisory layer into the layer of issuing proprietary products and providing infrastructure services. It is one of the most representative cases of a deep integration into the crypto market by a major U.S. traditional financial institution today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) listed, and when does trading begin?

MSBT will be officially listed on April 8, 2026, on the New York Stock Exchange Arca market. The NYSE confirmed the listing notice this Tuesday. Investors can trade through accounts that hold trading permissions for NYSE Arca-listed instruments.

Is MSBT’s 0.14% fee truly the lowest in the market?

Yes. MSBT’s 0.14% management fee is currently the lowest level among all spot Bitcoin ETFs. It is lower than Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust’s 0.15%, as well as BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC, both at 0.25%, which is 11 basis points lower than the latter two.

Does Morgan Stanley’s entry mean there is still a lot of room for growth in the Bitcoin ETF market?

Bitwise advisor Jeff Park believes that even though IBIT has become the ETF to reach $80 billion in AUM faster than any other, there is still a large amount of unmet demand in the market, especially in attracting new investors. He pointed out that the market size is far beyond what crypto professionals expected, and Morgan Stanley’s entry further confirms the assessment that “we are still in an extremely early stage.”