Morgan Stanley will launch its Bitcoin ETF on April 8, becoming the first major Wall Street bank to launch such a fund. This article explores whether the MSTB ETF will boost the struggling BTC price, which has since remained in a bear market.
Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Faces Major Headwinds
In theory, the launch of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF should be highly bullish for BTC. Besides, this is one of the largest banks in the United States, with over $1.4 trillion in assets and over $9.3 trillion in clients’ wealth management assets, making it the largest wealth manager in the world.
However, in reality, the MSBT ETF is unlikely to have a major impact, despite its lower expense ratio than other funds. That’s because investors have already selected their preferred Bitcoin ETFs, with BlackRock’s IBIT emerging as the winner.
While Morgan Stanley is a major Wall Street bank, BlackRock is also the world’s largest asset manager, with over $14 trillion in assets under management. IBIT has accumulated over $52 billion in assets despite its expense ratio of 0.25%, which is higher than Grayscale’s BTC’s 0.15%.
READ MORE: Ethereum Price at Risk as Key DEX Metric Plunges Amid Hyperliquid Boom
Similarly, Fidelity, which has over $7.1 trillion in assets, has accumulated over $12.5 billion in its FBTC fund. As such, Morgan Stanley will be competing with some of the biggest names on Wall Street, including VanEck, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Invesco.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF is coming at a time when demand for Bitcoin funds is waning. While these funds added over $1.2 billion in assets last month, they have shed over $5 billion in the last five months.
At the same time, the launch comes amid thin demand for cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin remaining in a narrow range for the past two months. Bitcoin’s futures open interest has dropped to $40 billion from last year’s high of over $95 billion.
There are elevated geopolitical tensions, with Donald Trump threatening to attack Iran’s bridges and power plants, a potential war crime.
BTC Price Has Formed Bearish Patterns
The weekly chart shows that Bitcoin may be on the cusp of a strong bearish breakdown, potentially to the important support level at $58,330.
It is in the process of forming a bearish flag pattern, which is made up of a long descending line and an ascending channel.
The coin is also close to forming a death cross, as the spread between the 50-week and 200-week Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) narrows.
Bitcoin remains below the Supertrend indicator, a sign that bears have prevailed. Therefore, the coin will likely continue falling as sellers target the 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement level at $58,330, which is about 13% below the current level.
READ MORE: Here’s Why the Pi Network Coin Price is in a Freefall and What Next
