INSTITUTIONAL | World’s Largest Wealth Management Firm Debuts Crypto Trading

Morgan Stanley has begun piloting cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform, positioning itself as a direct competitor to established crypto exchanges with a lower-fee offering, according to media reports.

The Wall Street bank is charging about 0.5% per transaction undercutting platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood as it seeks to attract retail investors to its ecosystem, the a Bloomberg report has said.

The service is currently in a limited rollout but is expected to be expanded to E*Trade’s roughly 8.6 million clients in 2026 offering trading in major tokens including

• bitcoin,
• ether and
• solana.

Morgan Stanley’s move marks a significant escalation in competition between traditional financial institutions and crypto-native exchanges as banks increasingly look to capture a share of digital asset trading revenues.

The pilot also builds on the bank’s broader push into digital assets which has included exchange-traded crypto products and plans to deepen retail access through its wealth and brokerage platforms.

Morgan Stanley is not the only major institutional firm looking into crypto trading.

Brokerage giant, Charles Schwab, is preparing to roll out direct spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum with a launch targeted for the first half of 2026.

The service will be offered through a dedicated ‘Schwab Crypto’ account which requires users to already hold a brokerage account with the firm. Schwab has already opened a waitlist ahead of launch as it gauges demand.

By leveraging its existing client base and integrating crypto trading within a familiar brokerage interface, Morgan Stanley could reduce reliance on standalone crypto exchanges potentially pressuring industry fees and reshaping how retail investors access digital assets.

Stay tuned to BitKE on Stablecoin developments globally. 

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