Morgan Stanley has started rolling out cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform with lower fees than many rivals. The bank is charging a 0.50% fee on the dollar value of each crypto trade. That price undercuts major U.S. platforms such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab.
Later this year, all 8.6 million ETrade clients will have access to the service, which is now in a pilot program. ETrade customers will be able to trade Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana straight from their brokerage accounts thanks to a collaboration with digital asset infrastructure company Zerohash. According to Morgan Stanley, customers are expecting to see cryptocurrency in a single interface with stocks, options, and ETFs.
How Crypto Trading Works Inside E*Trade
Morgan Stanley plans to make crypto trading a fully integrated feature inside E*Trade, not a separate app. Users will see digital assets in the same dashboard as their traditional holdings, while Zerohash handles liquidity, custody, and transaction settlement for supported coins.
At launch, the service will focus on three large-cap assets: Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana. These coins already anchor many institutional products and account for most crypto trading volume. Morgan Stanley describes this as “phase one,” leaving room to add more tokens or tokenized assets later.
Strategy Against U.S. Crypto Platforms
By setting fees at 50 basis points, Morgan Stanley is directly targeting dedicated crypto exchanges. Retail investors often pay higher effective costs elsewhere once spreads and commissions are included. E*Trade’s pricing and large user base give Morgan Stanley a way to compete without creating a separate crypto brand.
The move also strengthens Morgan Stanley’s hold on wealth clients who might otherwise move funds to external apps to trade crypto. Keeping trading inside E*Trade helps the bank retain assets, collect more data, and cross-sell research and advisory services. For a firm that earns much of its revenue from wealth management, adding crypto fits into a broader digital asset strategy.
Morgan Stanley was among the first major U.S. banks to offer access to Bitcoin products and spot ETFs through its advisors. Extending that exposure to direct trading on E*Trade shows crypto is shifting from a niche product to a standard feature in brokerage accounts. Other Wall Street firms are also expanding digital asset offerings as rules become clearer.
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