Morgan Stanley has launched E*Trade cryptocurrency trading at 0.5%, below Coinbase, Schwab and Robinhood, in a pilot set to reach 8.6 million users.
Morgan Stanley launched ETrade cryptocurrency transactions with flat 0.5% fees, lower than Coinbase and Schwab. The pilot went live on May 6th, with Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana available directly within E.Trade your brokerage account via Zerohash, which handles liquidity, custody, and settlement. Pricing, reported by Bloomberg, ranks Morgan Stanley below its major retail competitors.
Schwab launched its own Bitcoin and Ether spot trading in April at 75 basis points. Fidelity’s fees are approximately 1% per trade. Robinhood is commission-free but applies a spread of 35 to 95 basis points on each trade.
ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said competitors “probably can’t stay this way,” predicting a significant compression in fees across the industry, similar to the race to zero expense ratios among Bitcoin ETFs.
Service content
Customers receive direct ownership of digital assets rather than fund exposure, eliminating third-party management fees but with greater price risk. Pilot does not support staking yet. Zerohash manages all backend operations and keeps private keys away from users.
As tracked by crypto.news, the ETrade cryptocurrency rollout is part of a broader digital asset push that includes Morgan Stanley’s MSBT Bitcoin ETF, which launched on April 8 with an expense ratio of 0.14% and reached $103 million in inflows within days.
The bank is also in the process of building its own digital wallet, scheduled for the second half of 2026, designed to hold cryptocurrencies alongside tokenized stocks, bonds and real estate. Jed Finn, head of asset management at Morgan Stanley, previously said the launch of crypto trading is “just the beginning.”
Competition and market impact
EThe trading launch comes after crypto.news reported that Morgan Stanley is also pursuing an OCC National Trust Bank license for direct custody and staking of cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase generated $3.32 billion in consumer trading revenue in 2025 and launched its own commission-free stock and ETF trading in February to compete with traditional brokerages.
Morgan Stanley’s 16,000 financial advisors oversee $9.3 trillion in client assets.For distribution channel trading, crypto-native platforms are unmatched. Once fully rolled out to 8.6 million users, it will become the largest retail cryptocurrency expansion in the U.S. stock market.
