Morgan Stanley nears launch of first U.S. bank Bitcoin ETF
6.6 Investments Morgan Stanley amended its SEC filing for a spot Bitcoin ETF, MSBT, to be listed on NYSE Arca. The fund will use Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon, targeting institutional clients.
Morgan Stanley has submitted a second amendment to its S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Bitcoin ETF. If approved, this would make Morgan Stanley the first major U.S. bank to directly issue such a product. The ETF, named the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), is planned to trade on NYSE Arca and will use the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark for daily pricing at 4:00 PM New York time. Coinbase Custody will handle the physical cold storage of Bitcoin, while BNY Mellon will act as cash custodian, administrator, and transfer agent. The fund structure supports both cash and in-kind creations and redemptions, primarily targeting institutional investors. Most Bitcoin will be stored offline in cold wallets, with a smaller portion kept in active trading wallets for ETF share creation and redemption. The filing details risk factors and insurance coverage. Morgan Stanley’s initiative signals its growing involvement in digital assets, with additional ETFs for Ethereum and Solana reportedly in development. The SEC is currently reviewing over 126 crypto ETF applications, and the management fee for MSBT has yet to be disclosed.
