Morgan Stanley has quietly begun offering direct cryptocurrency trading on E*Trade, charging a flat 0.5% fee per transaction. That undercuts rivals like Schwab (0.75%), Coinbase (often above 0.5%), and Fidelity (~1%). The pilot is live for a limited user group, with all 8.6 million E*Trade clients expected to gain access by late 2026, according to Bloomberg.
Pricing that bites
The 0.5% fee is the story here. Schwab charges 0.75% for crypto trades, Fidelity roughly 1%. Coinbase’s variable fee structure often lands above 0.5% for smaller orders. By going lower, Morgan Stanley is signaling it wants to pull in retail volume fast. E*Trade’s platform already supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) — the three coins that matter most to the mainstream crowd right now.
Behind the scenes: Zerohash
Custody, liquidity, and settlement for the new service come from Zerohash, a firm Morgan Stanley already holds a stake in. That relationship is about to get more interesting: Mastercard is acquiring Zerohash in a deal valued near $2 billion. The acquisition means payment infrastructure giant Mastercard will effectively be powering E*Trade’s crypto backend — a stamp of institutional legitimacy for the retail offering.
ETF filings and the bigger play
Morgan Stanley isn't stopping at spot trading. The firm has filed ETF applications for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. It already launched a spot Bitcoin ETF (ticker MSBT) in April 2024 with a razor-thin 0.14% expense ratio. The ETF lineup and the E*Trade crypto service are two sides of the same coin: the bank wants to own the on-ramp and the wrapper product for clients who prefer funds over direct holdings.
The distribution machine
E*Trade’s 16,000 in-house advisors manage roughly $9.3 trillion in client assets. That’s a massive distribution channel for any new product. Even a small slice of those assets shifting into crypto would move the needle for the entire market. The pilot lets Morgan Stanley test the waters before turning on the fire hose for millions of clients later this year.
Full rollout to all 8.6 million E*Trade users is slated for late 2026. The Mastercard-Zerohash deal is expected to close before then, giving the platform a consolidated custody provider. The big unresolved question: how many advisors actually steer clients into crypto — and how fast.
