Morgan Stanley E*Trade has begun rolling out cryptocurrency trading with lower fees than many competing platforms. The bank is charging 0.50% on the dollar value of each crypto transaction. The price compares favorably with key U.S. competitors such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab.
According to a Bloomberg report, the service is being offered as a pilot program and will roll out to the 8.6 million E*Trade customers later this year. Through a partnership with Zerohash, customers will be able to trade Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana directly from their brokerage accounts.
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Morgan Stanley E*Trade Adds Crypto Access
Morgan Stanley said customers want crypto access in the same place where they already manage stocks, options, and ETFs. The integration will bring digital assets into the E*Trade dashboard instead of requiring users to move funds to outside crypto apps.
Morgan Stanley E*Trade will not operate as a separate crypto app. Its goal is to display digital assets within the same dashboard through which customers have access to their traditional assets and investments.
Three big-cap assets will be added at the initial phase. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana were chosen for the launch, as they are already in use across crypto markets and institutional products.
Morgan Stanley has called this rollout phase one. It opens up the possibility for additional tokens to be introduced in the future or new tokenized assets to be added, depending on the company’s overall plan with digital assets.
The Morgan Stanley E*Trade strategy is all about pricing. At 50 basis points, the bank intends to charge fees for its cryptocurrency services, a move that could squeeze out dedicated cryptocurrency exchanges catering to retail investors.
E*Trade Expands Client Retention
Those platforms can carry higher effective costs, including spreads and commissions. E*Trade’s broad customer base will provide Morgan Stanley an opportunity to compete without establishing its own crypto brand.
The transition also enables the bank to retain clients’ activity in its own platform. For customers who desire exposure to crypto, they no longer have to transfer funds to third-party applications for basic trading access.
The move is important to Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business. Keeping assets inside Morgan Stanley E*Trade can support client retention, platform engagement, and wider use of research or advisory services.
The launch is the next step in the bank’s digital asset developments. Morgan Stanley is one of the first big U.S. banks to provide advisor clients with Bitcoin-related products and spot exchange-traded funds.
The direct trading offering via Morgan Stanley E*Trade is a sign of how crypto is getting closer to traditional brokerage offerings. It also mirrors the general interest of Wall Street, with large financial institutions beefing up their digital assets business under more transparent regulations.
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