Morgan Stanley is expanding its digital asset push by rolling out cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform, positioning the service as a low-cost option to existing retail cryptocurrency services.
According to Bloomberg, the bank is currently running a pilot in which E*Trade users will be charged a 50 basis point fee based on the amount of their trades. This is a significantly lower cost than other large companies, such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab, which charge fees of 60 to 95 basis points.
Jed Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley, said the initiative goes beyond offering cheap crypto trading and aims to “cut out the middle-men” and frames it as a broader structural change in the way clients access digital assets.
The investment banking giant plans to roll out the service to all 8.6 million ETrade customers later this year.
The latest offering builds on a series of crypto-related moves in recent months, including the launch of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, with products related to Ether and Solana also planned. Morgan Stanley is also working on the infrastructure front, applying for a national trust bank license that would allow it to directly store digital assets.
The bank is also considering a service that would allow people to exchange their crypto holdings for exchange-traded products without selling them, and is preparing for the possibility of tokenized stock trading later this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The moves will increase competition in a market where Coinbase generated $3.32 billion in consumer transaction revenue in 2025 and Robinhood reported nearly $1 billion in crypto-related revenue.
