Morgan Stanley filed amended registration statements for proposed Ethereum and Solana ETF trusts on June 18, setting a 0.14% annual delegated sponsor fee on both products. That's the lowest among ETH and SOL products worldwide, according to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The filings are preliminary — the SEC needs to declare them effective before shares can trade.
Fee war heats up
The 0.14% fee undercuts every major competitor. BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) charges 0.25%. Grayscale's mini Ether trust sits at 0.15%. On the Solana side, Bitwise's staking ETF (BSOL) costs 0.20%, and Franklin Templeton's SOEZ charges 0.19%. Morgan Stanley's fee is a blunt signal: it's willing to compete on price from day one. The bank operates in 42 countries and managed about $1.8 trillion as of September 2025. That scale means even a thin fee can add up.
Staking mechanics
Both trusts plan to stake their holdings. The ETH trust (ticker MSSE) intends to stake between 50% and 80% of its ether under normal conditions. The SOL trust (MSOL) plans to stake up to 100% of its Solana. In both cases, the trusts keep 95% of staking rewards; service providers and custodians get the remaining 5%. Using Bitwise's disclosed gross staking reward rate of 6.28% as a benchmark, a fully staked SOL product retaining 95% would generate roughly 5.97% before the 14 bps fee, or 5.83% after fee. For ETH at a hypothetical 3% gross staking yield with 50% to 80% staked, the retained staking contribution after fees lands between 1.29% and 2.14%. That extra yield could be the draw for yield-hungry investors.
Demand signals
Flow data from 2026 shows episodic demand for crypto ETFs. The week of May 18 saw Bitcoin outflows of $982 million, while SOL pulled in $55.1 million. The week of May 25: BTC ETFs lost 16,595 BTC, SOL added 192,835 SOL (~$16.58 million), and ETH shed 105,862 ETH. The week of June 1 brought $1.44 billion in Bitcoin outflows, $257 million from ETH, and smaller outflows from XRP, Hyperliquid, and NEAR. On June 17, US spot ETH ETFs had a single-day inflow of 9,361 ETH (~$16.4 million), though 7-day flows remained negative. The pattern suggests rotation, not mass adoption — but consistent Solana inflows hint at real demand for staked exposure.
The SEC must declare both registration statements effective before the trusts can start trading. There's no deadline for that decision. Morgan Stanley's entry — with the lowest fees and an established global footprint — raises the pressure on incumbents. If the SEC signs off, these would be the first Ether and Solana ETFs from a major US bank, not just an asset manager. The clock is now on the regulator.
